the city on Monday. (ST)
SHILLONG: Thma-U-Rangli-Juki (TUR), a progressive people’s organisation on Monday demanded repeal of the Meghalaya Preventive Detention Act (MPDA) and the Meghalaya Maintenance of Public Order (MMPO) Act, the two laws under which leaders of many pressure groups have been booked in the last three months.
The TUR held a street corner meeting on the draconian MPDA and the MMPO Act to observe the International Human Rights Day.
“The street corner meeting is a campaign against attacks on people’s right to protest and expose the blatant misuse of these black laws by a corrupt and authoritarian State Government to silence any form of dissent and the government’s constant illegal infringement on the civil and political liberties of the people of the State,” TUR said.
Speaking to media persons, TUR leader Angela Rangad accused the State Government of misusing and abusing the Acts, even as she asserted that the two Acts take away the right of the people to oppose.
Rangad asserted that the due process of law has to be followed, but imposition of MPDA even on those accused in car theft cases amounts to misuse of the laws by the police.
“If TADA can be removed why not MPDA?” she questioned.
She also alleged that the Government is making claims of tackling the law and order problems by curtailing the rights of the people.
She also pointed out that repealing the MPDA and MMPO would not encourage miscreants to indulge in arson and other violence, since there are other laws in existence including the IPC to deal with such cases.
It may be mentioned that a total of 71 pro-ILP activists have been arrested and booked under the MMPO or the MPDA for their alleged involvement in several cases related to arson in the past three months.