SHILLONG, OCT 15: The Meghalaya government has appealed to villagers of Lapangap village in West Jaintia Hills district to refrain from harvesting activities for the time being in a bid to maintain peace and security along the Meghalaya-Assam border.

This came a day after a delegation from Lapangap under the banner of the Joint Action Committee (JADC) met chief minister Conrad K Sangma, requesting permission to proceed with harvesting.

“Though the harvesting is of course very important for the farmers and the public there, but safety and security is our utmost concern. Even though we would be able to provide sufficient manpower but these kinds of incidents which are not completely under our control. We would not want any kind of unfortunate incident to happen out there, which would only escalate the overall tension in that area. Hence, to avoid any kind of unfortunate situation, we have urged the villagers that we must restrain (from harvesting activities) at this point in time, we must be patient,” Sangma told reporters on Wednesday.

The chief minister said the unfortunate incident had taken both the Meghalaya and Assam police by surprise, and heightening tensions in the area.

“Situation is not expected to go in this direction. There was a lot of positive dialogues going on between the different stakeholders and we had expected that we will be able to peacefully move forward but unfortunately this unfortunate incident took place and as I said this is something even the Assam police and Meghalaya police both were equally surprised where the discussion were taking place some sort of tension was there, this incident took place completely away from where the people had gathered,” he said while adding “So, we are still trying to understand under what circumstances this happened, but while that is happening, this may not be a good time to instigate things any further.”

The chief minister assured that the government is working at different levels to try and find a solution.

“We would appeal that we should restrain and allow peace to come in. We are engaging with different stakeholders to see if we can find a way to resolve this issue and work on it. Till then it will be advisable that we should not go ahead with any activity that could lead to any kind of further tension in that particular area,” Sangma stated.

“After discussing with them (delegation), the people were still keen and they urged us to speak to our counterparts and leaders across the border and neighbouring state and see if we can find way, which as I said we are pursuing and we are trying our best and different officials, political leadership and administration are working in different levels and are trying to achieve that,” he added.

When asked, Sangma said, “Only if we get positive response from across that let’s try to get over this phase and at least allow the people to harvest only when we have a mutual agreement will be able to move forward. Till then though the harvesting is very crucial for our people but as I said the lives and safety and security are of paramount importance to us.”

Also Read: Meghalaya Govt releases Rs 79.5 crore to GHADC for employee salaries

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