By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The East Garo Hills district administration has increased the presence of security personnel following the recovery of GNLA pamphlets from a roadside in Williamnagar in East Garo Hills on Saturday.
East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner, Vijay Mantri, on Sunday said two additional companies of central paramilitary forces are already in Williamnagar to ensure that there is no disturbance by the GNLA during the election.
There are as many as 69 hyper sensitive polling stations in the district and out of this around 40 per cent are under Williamnagar. Songsak and Rongjeng are the other vulnerable areas.
According to reports, the GNLA threw the pamphlets on the roadside and police recovered as many as 17 of them on Saturday morning.
An official said that the district administration is not sure whether it is the actual handiwork of GNLA or some vested interests who had resorted to the ploy to tarnish the image of a particular candidate, since there was no GNLA symbol on the pamphlets.
The pamphlets had mentioned: ‘whoever will vote for Jonathone N Sangma, beware, this is bullet and gun’. Saturday, being a market day in Williamnagar, was the ideal time to convey the message to the people.
Recently, the GNLA had attempted to sabotage an election rally of Independent candidate, Jonathone N Sangma, by firing in the air in a forest area adjacent to a place where the candidate was holding an election rally.
Later, he also lodged a complaint with the District Electoral Officer informing that the GNLA had sent letters to some villages mentioning that the people should not vote for him but should support Congress candidate Deborah Ch Marak. After the complaint, the Election Commission of India had decided to send additional forces to Williamnagar to ensure that the militants do not influence the voters. The election observers have also taken the matter seriously as they started interacting with the candidates.
However, the East Garo Hills district administration hoped that with more visibility of security personnel there will be a sense of security in the minds of the people.