SHILLONG, Feb 18: Acting Director-General of Police (DGP), Idashisha Nongrang said allegations of coal trader-insurgent nexus are nothing new.
Reacting to All India Trinamool Congress leader Mukul M Sangma’s assertion that some armed groups were making money from illegal coal mining and transportation, she said militancy cannot be allowed to raise its ugly head in the state again.
“We have been making our inquiries into this (allegation). We have had a lot of experience when it comes to militancy and we have been successful in Khasi-Jaintia as well as in Garo Hills,” she said.
Nongrang, however, said the state cannot afford to let militancy affect the life of the citizens.
On the FIR filed by the Nokma of Nengchigen village, she said a case has been registered and the police are working on this and other mining-related cases in the state.
The acting DGP said the police have been following up on the issue of illegal mining and transportation of coal very closely.
“The National Green Tribunal has been monitoring our responsibilities and a number of cases have been registered by the police, both for mining as well as transportation of coal. In fact, 90% of the cases registered in Meghalaya on illegal mining and transportation of coal have been from the police,” she said.
‘Law AND order
under control’
Nongrang said the law-and-order situation in the state has been under control and they do not foresee any major issues at the moment.
“We are doing our very best to ensure that the law-and-order situation is controlled. It is very much under control and we don’t immediately foresee any major issues at the moment,” she said.
The city had in the recent past witnessed a series of armed robberies or attempts at the petrol pumps.
A filling station in Shillong was robbed in the first week of February, weeks after armed miscreants looted a petrol pump in the Ri-Bhoi district.
Two armed miscreants on a two-wheeler barged into the Assam Auto Agency petrol pump near the Pantaloons store in the capital and looted ₹2.80 lakh.
The miscreants tried in vain to rob another petrol pump at Nongrim Hills.
The police said they are still investigating the robberies.