TURA, Dec 9: The Conrad K Sangma government has done what other successive governments failed to do: creating a police outpost at Jongkipara village, located between Garobadha and Rajabala, to put an end to years of illegal mining being perpetrated by Assam based mining mafia which is destroying the entire ecology of the hills connected to the plain belt region of West Garo Hills and robbing Meghalaya of crores of rupees in revenue due to the continued theft.

Dozens of illegal stone quarries in the Jongkipara region have for years been destroying entire hills of forest cover to extract the stones and boulders and transport them to nearby Assam without any valid document or payment of royalty to the state government.

Villagers of Jongkipara and its adjoining areas have for years been petitioning governments to end this destruction but without any success.

Dozens of villages stretching from Zekabari and Jonkipara all the way to Rajabala have been affected by the illegal mining in which gangs extract the minerals late in the night inside the forests where there are no prying eyes.

These extracted boulders are broken down into stone chips inside the illegal quarries and sold off by the truck every morning.

With no checks or documents to differentiate the origin of the stones, they are sold off in the lucrative construction business all the way to Tura and even Williamnagar.

The villages affected by this illegal stone quarrying are also facing another major problem- that of illegal influx by encroachers from Assam who are forcibly occupying land close to the quarry sites to gain from the illegal operations.

With no police station or outpost for a long distance of 30 kms, from Garobadha town to Hallidayganj in the plain belt, the entire belt has become a den for criminal activities perpetrated by criminals who cross over from Assam.

Murder, dacoity and other heinous crimes have been frequent in the region for the past couple of years and as many as 15 criminal cases are with police. Attempts to arrest the criminal gangs have been difficult because they take refuge in the infamous village of Kalapani, across the border, where villagers and criminals work in tandem to disrupt any police operation.

Highway dacoities and murders have also occured in the Jongkipara area and the highway from Garobadha- Garodoba and Oidoba committed primarily by criminal gangs from Assam’s South Salmara Mankachar district which is a stone’s throw from the affected area.

And now drug peddlers have begun using the road to bring in the banned narcotics from Mankachar to Garo Hills, including Tura.

A couple of years ago, criminal gangs suspected to be from Assam created fear across the region by breaking into homes, robbing gold ornaments and cash, assaulting the victims and even committing rape.

The setting up of the outpost in the most vulnerable of the region is expected to be a deterrent to criminal gangs who for years have been running a criminal network without fear of the law.