Shillong, July 12: Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh on Wednesday informed that he had taken up with the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Home (Police) Prestone Tynsong the matter of the district administration clamping the entire Shillong city under section 144 CrPC after 10 PM.

Lyngdoh told reporters that Tynsong will immediately convene a high level meeting on Thursday to review the law and order situation. “We expect things to change based on the proceedings of tomorrow’s meeting,” he said.

The East Khasi Hills district administration had issued an order under section 144 CrPC prohibiting opening of shops, restaurants, enterprises in the entire Shillong city after 10 pm.

Consumption of intoxicants and engaging in any unlawful activities in the vehicle and blasting of music near educational, religious institutions, hospitals besides residential areas after 10 pm have also been prohibited.

This came after a recent scuffle between two groups of people which led to the torching of 3 vehicles at the Laitumkhrah police station.

Lyngdoh opined that people feel safer with shops and malls opening late at night. “In fact, I would, with due respect to the officer concerned, when you have shops and everything is open then there is more safety. You feel more safe when shops around are open, when malls are opened then people can walk and feel safer. When everything is shut how do you instill that sense of confidence that everything is normal?” he asked.

He added, “Stray incidents are always there. Not only in Shillong, they also happened in New York, in Paris but that doesn’t mean that you close everything down.”

On the Deputy Commissioner justifying her decision by saying normal citizens would be home by 10 PM, Lyngdoh said, “I do not know who do you define as normal and who is abnormal because in cities, even in Guwahati, people land up for dinner at midnight, so you don’t call them abnormal because they have dinner at 12 midnight. So, how do you encourage local entrepreneurs to turn to tourism if things are shutdown at 10 PM and what happens if you have hotel guests arriving at 10 PM and not getting food, should you ask him to hang on till breakfast?”

Lyngdoh, who is also social welfare minister, said that in fact things have improved tremendously in Shillong if one looks at the figures of arrests made by the police and the raids being conducted on narcotics and other illegal drugs. “You will notice that there has been a surge in the number of people being detained and, in fact, now that we have notified the new PITNDPS with tougher measures, we expect that it will act as a deterrent.”

The minister was also of the opinion that the district administration should upscale policing and allow people to move freely. “Because confining them in their respective localities will not solve any problem, in fact it will increase the number of cases of violence within those localities,” he stressed.

Also Read: Shillong’s food stalls vendors urges administration to allow opening of shops till 12 am

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