Shillong, June 19: Meghalaya Police has attracted itself major attention, and all in the wrong way, when a team of its personnel on Thursday had a minor skirmish with the road-side vegetable vendors in Tura while enforcing the lockdown.

The incident occurred when a police patrol team went to the roadside market near the Tura Civil Hospital on Thursday afternoon to see that sellers close their shop for the day, as the vendors are allowed to sell their produces only till 1 PM. But some did not comply with the order and continued to keep their stalls open. This led to a heated altercation between three vendors and the police party, resulting in the latter throwing some of the produces on to the street.

West Garo Hills Superintendent of Police, Vivekanand Singh on Friday said it was an unfortunate incident and the concerned officer lost his cool in the heat of the moment. He said it’s a daily routine for the police party to go to market daily to ensure that the vendors do not keep their stalls open after 1 PM, which is part of the COVID-19 containment measures take effect.

He added that disciplinary action would be initiated against the officer and others in the patrol party on Monday, and assured that such incidents would not occur in future.

The concerned officer on Friday paid a visit to the three affected vendors to apologize for his actions and gave them Rs. 2,000 each as compensation for their loss of produces.
Singh said the officer did this of his own accord and the compensation is from his own pocket.

Meanwhile, the incident became a major talking point after Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma flagged the event. On his Facebook post, the Chief Minister urged the law enforcement agencies and district administrations to have compassion and empathy for the people and citizens of the state in the face of the hardships they are going through due to the Covid pandemic.