GUWAHATI: The All Assam Gorkha Students Union (Kamrup district unit) has condemned the alleged move by a police team from Meghalaya to threaten workers of a mobile phone service provider and forcibly stop tower installation work in the Langpih area along the inter-state border.
The union alleged that a team of eight to ten policemen from Meghalaya had come to the residence of Dhan Bahadur Chetri at Harshanagar, one of the five Gorkha-populated villages in the area, and stopped work on the mobile phone tower erected near his residential premises on Friday afternoon.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Sunday, AAGSU Kamrup district secretary, Gobinda Sarma said, “The police team had taken the names of the Meghalaya chief minister and the deputy commissioner of West Khasi Hills while threatening the workers of the mobile phone company to stop further work on the tower that is almost ready to become functional.”
“About six workers of the private mobile company were engaged before they were coerced to stop work. Company officials said they would visit the site on Monday and take requisite action,” Sarma said.
Police officials in Boko denied any law and order problem and said that the situation is being monitored and under control.
Harshanagar is an interior village about 28 km from Boko town in Kamrup district.
Apart from poor mobile network and lack of electrification, the border area is also crippled by the absence of an all-weather road connecting important markets.
“The Lampi (Langpih) area, which has about 1500 Gorkha families living there since the past several decades, has seen many untoward incidents related to the unresolved border issue. Development work has taken a back seat in the area with hindrances to such activities being a regular feature,” the AAGSU secretary rued. Condemning the local MLA and the district officials for allegedly looking the other way, Sarma said, “The Assam government must take immediate steps to restore work on the mobile tower or else another volatile situation in the disputed area is imminent for which it will be held responsible. As it is, the Gorkha community in the area is facing insecurity with threats to their lives and property,” Sarma said.
West Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner, T Lyngwa, however, could not be contacted.
Speaking to The Shillong Times, West Khasi Hills superintendent of police, BJ Laloo, said that while he was not aware of any magisterial order to stop work, “any development work in the disputed area (Langpih) must have prior approval of the deputy commissioners of the respective districts (Kamrup and West Khasi Hills) of the neighbouring states.”
“So if at all there has been any obstruction, in all probability, the company officials have not taken prior permission from the deputy commissioners,” Laloo said.
