SHILLONG: Following ITBP decision to shift its base from Shillong to Arunachal Pradesh, demand for shifting the offices of Assam Rifles and Indian Air Force from the capital city has started growing.
The NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa said that militarization of North East has been going on for the last 60 years.
He said that the NESO and KSU have time and again asked the Union Government to return the land occupied by Assam Rifles and Indian Air Force to the ‘rightful owners’.
Several clans of Khasi people have been fighting so many cases to get back their land from the defence establishments, he said adding that more than 35 per cent of the land in Shillong is under the possession of the defence establishments.
“If the land is returned to the rightful owners it will help in decongesting Shillong,” he said.
Echoing a similar view, former Urban Affairs Minister and UDP MLA Paul Lyngdoh said that Shillong was the only capital town in the North East when the defence establishments were set up and now the scenario has changed. The FKJGP president Joe Marwein also it would be good if Assam Rifles and other establishments are shifted from Meghalaya capital to other places.
