Shillong, May 20: Meghalaya DGP Idashisha Nongrang will start open house every Thursday from 12 am to 2 pm at the police headquarters to address the grievances of the people.
Nongrang, a 1992 batch IPS officer from the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, is the first woman DGP of Meghalaya after replacing LR Bishnoi.
“The perception that Meghalaya police is hostile to people should go, we will ensure that people benefit from the open house on every Thursday from 11 am to 2 pm”, she told reporters after assuming charge on Monday.
To a question on decorum, transparency and accountability in police force in the wake of the alleged vehicle scam and the FIR against the former DGP, Nongrang said that the tendency of police personnel working in silos is not desirable.
“We cannot work in silos, we need to invigorate the police force at all levels..there is a tendency of the police personnel sending memos to each other sitting in the same building. Also we need to ensure that our accessibility is better and strengthen the women’s help desks”, the DGP said.
She informed that there was a lot of appreciation to 12 companies of Meghalaya police personnel who were deputed to election duty outside the state. Their devotion to duty was appreciated, she added.
Question on female DGP
To a question being the first woman DGP, Nongrang said, “I don’t think the female DGP is any criteria or qualification for being DGP…but as a female officer, as a woman, I feel very strongly that women have a very different perspective and I would try to use that perspective to ensure that women themselves feel much better and feel much safer and improve the accessibility, which I know there’s a lot of room for improvement on the accessibility of the police to the public.”
Priorities
The DGP stressed on her commitment towards maintaining law and order, prevention and detection of crimes, combating crimes against women among other key priorities.
“Basic policing that is maintaining law and order, prevention and detection of crimes and of course, we would be focusing on areas, which we feel the trends are much more disturbing”, she said.
Crime against women
There is a need to relook into the approach towards dealing with crimes against women, Nongrang said.
“Despite the efforts we have been making over the years, there has been no decline, there has been in fact an increase…we haven’t been able to have the kind of results that we have been hoping for. Therefore, I feel that we need to have a relook at how we will be going about it and may rethink and rework our approach towards tackling such issues”, she said.
Drug issue
She asserted the need of the families to join the fight against drug menace. “It is something, which we need to work very closely not only with the law enforcement, the other agencies that are involved in the fight against drug but also specially with the families and the society at large, we would like to drill down to the families because one thing I have noticed about us is we would like to talk about it but we don’t really do much about it and when it comes to my family it is okay no it is not to be discussed.”
Regarding the question to stop the supply of drugs at the entry points to the state, the DGP said, “That is only one of the aspects I would say as to how best to tackle the drug menace. Yes if we could get them at the entry point yes nothing like it but the fact of the matter we have a very porous border and the national highway passes through Meghalaya so there are limitations on the amount of checking you can do and drugs is something which is so easy to concealed so unless there is specific information, you could be checking the right vehicle but unless we know where to look it is very difficult.”
Illegal coal mining
On illegal coal mining, Nongrang said there have been numerous instructions from the government and there are instructions from the court while the police have been trying to control it.
“(But) here also it is a question of a large number of people in the society, the question of livelihood, so how best we balance the livelihood issue and the illegal part of it,” she added.
HNLC peace talks
Regarding the decision of the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to pull out of the peace talks, the DGP said, “Where the peace talks are concerned, it is a decision where the government has made very clear that they are very open to peace talks as the DGP of the state yes, we have seen HNLC we have faced them, yes, we have also seen peace talks with the ANVC, which ended in a tripartite agreement. We have also seen the problems of implementing that agreement. We have also dealt with GNLA and we did have any kind of peace talks with the GNLA and a number of other small groups – so where HNLC is concerned and peace talks are concerned, I think the right person to talk to would be the government in this case.”
Regarding the demand notes by the HNLC, Nongrang said, “On that, the demand notes of the HNLC, the HNLC themselves have come up with clarification that it is not them, that verification is going on whether it is actually them or an offshoot of somebody mimicking the HNLC. Investigation is going on, inquiries are going and I would like to leave it at that.”
She added that bringing the misguided youth to the right path is not just the duty of the police.
“Police have to work together with society and other concerned groups and it should be a concerted effort and should be looking at having a synergy in ensuring that the youth are not misguided,” she said.
