SHILLONG, July 26: Just two days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the multi-crore interstate bus terminus (ISBT) at Mawiong, the campus has been turned into a high-secured zone with media persons prevented from entering the premises.
This scribe reached the ISBT at Mawiong on Monday afternoon to take pictures of the project and take a stock of the facilities set up for the benefit of the passengers but some people in plain clothes appeared on the scene and asked the scribe to vacate the campus.
One person from the group identified himself as a policeman and said that they have been directed by the officer in-charge of Mawlai Police Station not to allow anyone inside the ISBT.
The person did not even allow this scribe to take photos of the ISBT campus and repeatedly asked him to leave the premises.
Another person, who claimed to be the manager of the labourers, also said that media persons were not allowed at the site.
When this scribe called up a senior police official in Shillong he was assured that the OC of Mawlai PS would be given necessary instruction to allow the media person inside the ISBT but there was no further communication from his end.
A woman working at the site approached this scribe and asked him to leave the campus saying that she had to lock the gate.
Surprisingly, a mixture of cement and sand was seen on the premises indicating that some work was going on inside the campus. Fresh stock of sand was also seen, indicating that the ISBT work was yet to be completed.
During the inauguration of the project on Saturday, it was seen that some electrical fitting had remained incomplete in some of the rooms on the first floor of the ISBT building.
The presence of security personnel at the ISBT, a public property, and the restriction on entry of media persons raises several questions.
It may be mentioned that ST had carried a report on Friday last, stating that the Union Home Minister was set to inaugurate an incomplete ISBT but the government had dismissed the report and clarified that Transport Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar had been quoted out of context in the ST report.
