Shillong, Nov 25: Strongly condemning the Assam police firing that killed six persons at Mukroh village, the Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum (MTDF) on Friday appealed to the pressure groups to refrain from any activities that would aggravate the situation, thus affecting tourism in the state.
In a statement, chairman of rural tourism committee of the MTDF, Aiban S Mawkhroh, said, “The MTDF strongly condemns the unfortunate incident at the Assam Meghalaya border wherein six innocent lives from Mukroh Village in West Jaintia Hills were lost in the senseless firing by the Assam Police. We stand in solidarity with the people of Mukroh and pray for the family of the departed souls and wish a speedy recovery to the injured.”
He said the forum also impresses upon the state governments of Assam and Meghalaya to expedite the process of resolving the border issues at the earliest and also the subsequent investigations to bring justice to the departed and injured.
“We stand by the similar demands addressed by the various NGOs but at the same time we would like to state that as a Forum that stands for the development of tourism in the State, we urge them to refrain from taking up any activities that would aggravate the situation thus affecting tourism and other allied activities associated with it,” Mawkhroh appealed.
He said the Forum, which is also working for the promotion of rural tourism, felt that the recent untoward incidents in Shillong has seriously affected their partners working in the rural tourism industry like homestay owners, local entrepreneurs at camping sites, local transporters and small businesses at tourism sites.
Stating that there has already been a major loss during the two years of Covid pandemic, Mawkhroh said such disturbances would greatly affect people in the rural areas who have invested in rural tourism activities.
He said Meghalaya has already earned a name as a much-favoured tourism destination in the last year and any unnecessary disturbances shall take a long time to recover the brand name again.
“We urge the NGOs to therefore allow the lawful processes to take their course before resorting to any forms of protest that would affect the livelihoods of our fellow citizens in the rural areas especially those engaged in daily earnings from tourism,” he said.
The MTDF also requested the tourism department to provide a hotline number to facilitate any assistance to tourists visiting the state which shall present a positive image in the State’s endeavour to promote safe tourism.
