Shillong, Nov 28: The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) wanted the police to issue arrest warrant and initiate legal action against those involved in the killing of border residents in Mukroh rather than initiating judicial inquiry.
“We have seen many judicial inquiries but this has not brought any desired result and the government has not taken any effective steps to act on the reports”, said Trinamool Congress MLA George Lyngdoh, who attended the all party meeting on Monday.
The opposition MLA stressed the need to either form a new government or impose President’s rule in Meghalaya citing that the present MDA government has lost its moral authority following the killing of five Khasi villagers in the Assam police firing at Mukroh.
The opposition chief said two judicial enquiry commissions have been set up-one from Assam side and one from state government side.
“Now we defer because the judicial commission that has been set up by Assam is exceeding its jurisdiction because the incident happened in Mukroh which infact falls under the jurisdiction of Meghalaya,” Lyngdoh said.
He also pointed out that the judicial inquiry is going to be set by Meghalaya but wanted to know how will it work on those people who fall under the control of Assam especially the police which are under the administrative control of Assam. “Can our judicial enquiry cross beyond the borders of Meghalaya and work on people who are under the control of Assam? Whether that judicial enquiry and its recommendations will work? so we express our doubts.”
Lyngdoh said the state government had said that they are going to call for a CBI inquiry or an NIA probe that will come and carry out the process. “However, we don’t know the timing. We don’t know whether the central government has actually agreed to it or not whether it is going to be a CBI enquiry or some other judicial enquiry also we don’t know,” he said.
Demanding the immediate arrest of the Assam police and forest guards involved in the firing, Lyngdoh said, “Therefore, what we said was that why don’t we put our task force our police into action as we had said earlier also we had demanded the government that those culprits should be arrested and arrest warrant should be immediately issued by the state police against those culprits because it is a murder that has been committed on Meghalaya soil and the state police should go against those culprits.”
He said the opposition has also demanded the government to provide alternative or some kind of employment to the next of kin of the departed villagers and take care of all the medical expenses of those injured.
The AITC disagreed with the government clubbing the firing incident with the inter-state boundary issue.
The opposition chief whip said, “We wanted that this criminal act should be dealt with the sternness of action from the state government side and they should also ensure that they show their authority over this case otherwise it will weaken their point on further discussion on inter-state boundary issues and in their inter-state border settlement if the state government does not act now and show its authority over such areas then perhaps it would be pushing the state government on a back foot and it will hamper further discussion and communication they are going to have with government of Assam in the years and the months to come.”
“The government said that they are going to be looking into these demands made by several parties and there has been no assurance that actions will be taken based on the demands made,” he rued.
Regarding the demand for resignation, Lyngdoh said, “We have made it very clear that if the government again fails to reassert its authority and jurisdictional control over the areas that falls under the jurisdiction of Meghalaya then the right of people to live there is being suppressed and at the same time the government has failed in its responsibility to act timely,” he said
“Noot only the CM but the entire cabinet has lost its moral responsibility to rule the state and therefore either a new government should come or in fact a president’s rule should also be imposed in the state considering the fact that the government has lost its moral authority and its responsibility in governing the state.”
