SHILLONG, March 17: Chairperson of the Women Empowerment Committee of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly and senior Congress legislator, Ampareen Lyngdoh, on Wednesday tore into the state government, particularly the Home department, for failing to come up with a mechanism to address cases of oppression of women and children despite these being reported frequently in the state.
Condemning the suspected rape and murder of a 16-year-old student in East Jaintia Hills, Lyngdoh said, “It is unacceptable. There are no words to express the kind of insecurity that we, the women of the state, feel.”
Stating that two similar cases have occurred in Jaintia Hills within a span of a few months, the Congress MLA said, “We will have to get to the bottom of this. We would first appeal to the police to have all the reports ready and launch an aggressive manhunt to nab the perpetrators of these horrible crimes.”
Giving the thumbs down to the state government’s claims on the floor of the House on Tuesday that it has been able to maintain the overall law and order situation in the state, Lyngdoh said, “It is one thing to read out a prepared note from a department by a minister but it is another thing to be able to keep up with the actual ground realities.”
Making it amply clear that she did not want to indulge in a blame game, Lyngdoh asserted that the Assembly committee would continue to mount pressure on the government to ensure that women are not victimised in any way.
Dreading that crimes against women will continue to be reported, she asked the Police department to adequately prepare themselves. “We still lack a lab for spot investigation of forensic samples. If the Police department does not gear itself than everything just becomes a big talk on the floor of the Assembly while the actual situation on the street of Meghalaya would take a turn for the worse,” she added.
