Govt proposes all-party meet on boundary commission
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma has stressed on the need to strengthen the internal security apparatus of the state by upgrading the police stations in the state.
Replying to the debate on Governor’s Address in the Assembly on Friday, Sangma informed that the State Government had invested hugely to strengthen the internal security apparatus. He added that posts have been sanctioned and the recruitment process has also been revamped and restructured.
Stating that the State Government has sanctioned new police stations, the Chief Minister admitted that the police stations in the state were not commensurate to the growing challenges and therefore Government has decided to upgrade the police stations.
Sangma said that proposals for strengthening and sanctioning of new police stations have been submitted to the Centre and the Union Government has asked the state to make commitments on the expenditure front to take on the establishment costs of such police stations after five years to which the State Government has agreed.
According to him, as per the suggestion of the Union Government the strengthening of police stations would be taken up in a phased manner and it would start with Garo Hills in the first phase followed by eastern range.
While asserting that many splinter groups of several rebel outfits have mushroomed in Garo Hills, the Chief Minister said that the State Government came up with the idea of raising Special Force-10 which will have strength of more than 1800 police personnel.
While stating that the peace pact with ANVC took ten years to be finalized and by then many splinter groups had mushroomed, the Chief Minister said, “We all are equally to be blamed for not taking timely decisions since Meghalaya was subjected to political instability.”
He also asserted that three years of stability in the State Government finally enabled the signing of the peace pact with the militant outfits (ANVC and ANVC-B).
Boundary commission: On the long-pending boundary dispute with Assam, Sangma proposed for an all party consultations to discuss the ways and means to convince the Union Government to constitute a boundary commission.
Sangma said that all should take the responsibility jointly and a single party cannot take any decision on the vexed boundary dispute.
“Political parties which do not have any representative in the Assembly besides independent MLAs will also be invited for discussions,” he said.
Sangma said if the Meghalaya Government continued to engage through bilateral engagements with Assam, then it would take a long time and the state would ultimately reach nowhere in solving the problem.