SHILLONG, Dec 19: Nongpoh MLA Mayralborn Syiem on Monday asked the state government to speed up the investigation into the Mukroh firing incident as people were waiting for justice to be delivered.
Speaking to media persons here, Syiem said they were not happy with the pace of investigation and said greater impetus was needed to complete the probe at the earliest.
The suspended Congress MLA also asked the state government to ensure that there is no discontent among the people as far as the second phase of border talks was concerned.
According to Syiem, the discussions should be under the ambit of Para 20 of the Sixth Schedule.
He said there are 18 villages under Raid Nongtung in Block-II and four more villages have requested the Synjuk Ki Rangbah Shnong to include them in the list so that they could be with Meghalaya.
“These villages fall within Meghalaya as per the 1951 notification and the state government has to discuss the matter with Assam to ensure that they do not stake claims over these villages,” Syiem said.
Remove new Assam beat office at Mukroh
The members of the Dorbar Shnong of Mukroh village and the KSU on Monday urged the NPP-led MDA government to persuade the Assam government to remove its recently-reconstructed forest beat office.
The beat office was the reason behind the November 22 shooting incident in which five Meghalaya villagers were killed, the members said.
The Dorbar Shnong and the KSU members were scheduled to submit a representation to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on the grievances of the border villagers linked to the reconstructed beat office and border outposts (BOPs) by Assam.
The meeting was, however, called off as the chief minister was unwell.
(Contd on P-9)
MLA wnats Mukroh probe completed…
(Contd from P-3) KSU general secretary Donald V Thabah told reporters that the Assam beat office was destroyed by the people following the Mukroh firing incident.
“During our visit to the village, we saw the beat office reconstructed much better than it was earlier. The beat office is illegal because it is inside the territory of Meghalaya,” he said.
Thabah said there is a sense of fear among the villagers because of this beat office.
He claimed the Meghalaya villagers who go out to collect forest produce are detained by the Assam Forest officials if they do not agree to pay up.
“We urge the chief minister to take up with his Assam counterpart for the removal of the beat office to ease the tension among the villagers,” he said, adding that Assam should ideally remove the beat office as a goodwill gesture.
The KSU general secretary said it is unclear when the Meghalaya BOPs would be set up along the boundary with Assam.
“We want our government to set up more BOPs. But there should be enough manpower to man them. It will serve no purpose if these BOPs are not fully equipped,” he said.
He said a re-appointment with Sangma would be sought again.
