Shillong, March 26: Cabinet minister and government spokesperson Paul Lyngdoh on Wednesday assured that the government will take action if there are complaints of minors being taken out of the state.

He was reacting to a question on the demand for investigation by a state fact finding team on the number of young boys and girls taken by groups or organizations for providing free education outside the state following the recent food poisoning case in Karnataka, which claimed the lives of two students from Meghalaya.

Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said, “The stand of the government has always been to ensure the safety of every Meghalayan, who travels or study outside the state, which is why the commissioner & secretary home personally visited on behalf of the state government visited the hospital, where those two casualties occurred.”

“On the part of the government, we will do everything to unearth the circumstances leading to the death of the two boys. The secretary home will submit a formal report to the deputy CM in-charge Home and the CM and we will take a call on that,” he added.

Asked, Lyngdoh said, “Primarily, I agree to what you say but on this very matter it is very important for all stakeholders especially members of civil society to bring it to our notice. Now nothing of that kind has happened so far. It just happened in this particular instance that the boys lost their lives, which is why it got the attention that it got but actually nobody even heard about such boys being indoctrinated and being kept in these homes for reasons which you have already spelled out.”

The minister also requested all concerns especially village heads to bring such issues to the notice of the government and to the department of social welfare so that we take cognizance of all such complaints.

“We need formal complaints because as you mentioned there could have been consent given by parents, by guardians in which case government has little role to play but where there are specific complaints of minors being abused for purpose of religious conversions we will certainly take cognizance of such complaints. Therefore, we need specific information,” he added.