Shillong,Jan 27: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Tuesday said the government may not arm the Village Defence Parties but they will guard the Indo-Bangla and Assam-Meghalaya borders.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Tynsong said that we Meghalaya is taking steps to curb illegal immigration, with plans to reactivate village defence parties along its international border with Bangladesh and inter-state border.
Tynsong said, “If you talk about illegal immigration, this is a national subject and in fact it is not a state subject but let me tell you one thing as far as this situation that we have in Bangladesh is concerned, now we have decided as a state government that we will re-activate the functioning of the VDPs in all international border as well as the inter-state border.”
When asked whether the government is considering providing arms to the VDPs, Tynsong said, “Not necessary arms but we will give them further training. We will have some kind of training and we will also see what are the basic requirement needed – that we are in the process of completing this whole issue. We will give more training the VDPs so that they can also handle this issue of illegal immigration).”
The deputy chief minister said the state is taking action against illegal immigration as per the existing laws and enforcement mechanisms.
He assured the border safety.
“Right now, we are safe. Jointly, BSF and state police are fully alerted, and district administrations are directed to take action on receiving information.”
Regarding Bangladesh election precautions, Tynsong said, “We do take precautionary measures irrespective of elections or not”.Assam-Meghalaya border
Assam- Meghalaya border
Tynsong said the situation at the Assam-Meghalaya border, specifically in Maikhuli, has improved significantly.
“Right from that time, we constituted regional committees from both sides of the states, and we could see lots of improvement,” Tynsong said.
Residents of Assam had initially opposed the erection of electric poles in the area, but a peace committee comprising villagers resolved the issue, allowing the project to proceed.
“We constituted the regional committees from both sides of the states, we could see lots of improvement have happened and in Maikhuli we have seen that residents of Assam did not allow erection of electric pole in that area but ultimately we have instructed our DC to have a meeting with his counterpart and not only that we went ahead by having a peace committee of those villages and now everything is resolved and even the erection of the electric poles is allowed by Assam,” Tynsong said
On Rajabala situation, the deputy chief minister said that the situation is currently calm and peaceful.
“We instructed the deputy commissioner to have a peace committee over there, and right now, nothing has happened,” he added.
