SHILLONG: The ongoing campaign demanding removal of Meghalaya Preventive Detention Act (MPDA) and Meghalaya Maintenance of Public Order (MMPO) Act on Tuesday received a shot in the arm when a day-long consultations held to solicit opinions on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 took a resolution in similar lines terming these laws “draconian”.
During the consultations hosted by NESO with the support of the KSU, it was unanimously resolved that the draconian laws like MMPO Act and MPDA should be repealed immediately.
Several prominent pressure groups in the past had accused the State Government of misusing and abusing the Acts by taking away the right of the people to oppose.
Mentionably, MPDA was passed in 1995 and MMPO Act, 1947 adopted by the State with the sole intention to suppress the voice of the people in raising objection against the wrongdoings of the State Government.
The Thma-U-Rangli-Juki (TUR), a progressive people’s organisation has also been campaigning to demanded repeal of the MMPO and MPDA.
The meeting also resolved to sensitize the student community of the North East on the consequences of imposition of AFSPA in the region.
In another resolution, a decision was taken to translate the AFSPA text and other related literature into vernacular languages.
The other resolutions which were adopted include to use the existing human rights mechanisms like the National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commission, Women’s Commission, RTI Commission etc to protect the human rights, to pressure the Members of Parliament from the North East region to raise the issue of repeal AFSPA in the Parliament and to ensure that the issue of repeal of AFSPA is in the list of priorities of NESO.