Tura, July 24: Following the violence outside the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) in Tura on Monday evening, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has issued a stern warning, stating that the police possess full video recordings and details of those who instigated the violence, and assured to take legal action against the perpetrators.
While the CM was having a peaceful meeting with representatives of ACHIK and GHSMC at the CMO Tura, an unruly mob started pelting stones at the police and his office, resulting in injuries to several police personnel.
Reacting on the incident, CM Sangma said, “The incident that took place today in Tura, outside the CM’s Secretariat and the Commissioner of Divisions office is indeed very, very unfortunate.”
At the same time, he condemned the violence and emphasised “this is not something that the Garo Hills has experienced”. He stressed that what happened on Monday evening seems to be a plan of some vested interest group(s).
“Whatever we have seen seems to be another plan by some other individuals. As I said, even the NGOs who are in this have already said that they are not part of this and they are not aware of the individuals who have been involved,” the CM said
Reiterating that the authorities have the video recordings and action will be taken against them, he said, “We have a full video recording and the details of all the people who have instigated, and definitely as per law necessary action will be taken from the police side.”
Meeting with civil bodies fruitful
Talking about the meeting with the civil bodies, he said, “We had discussed with one or two of the groups and NGOs who had concerns and were having fasting for the last many, many days. While discussions were going on, we had already agreed on finally meeting in Shillong and discussing this further with all different stakeholders, because the concerns that they have are affecting many communities and affecting the overall state as a whole and, hence, these kind of decisions require more consultation.”
However, after the discussion had nearly concluded, protesting slogans were heard, and unidentified miscreants began pelting stones at the CMO Tura building.
He informed that other development aspects and works that have been initiated were also discussed. He further stressed on his ideology of having dialogue, because of which he decided to meet the civil society groups and NGOs on Monday in Tura to discuss their issues.
“These NGOs who had these concerns were more or less satisfied. And I also would like to stress that majority of the stakeholders, civil society and the NGOs were not part of this fasting that took place. They were just two organizations, maximum 3 organizations that were in this, but 90% of the organizations were not part of this. So even then I felt it appropriate and I’ve always believed that dialogue is important and hence I made it a point to meet them and that was the what was decided,” he said.
Trouble mongers not part of protesting groups
As soon as the agitation and sloganeering started, the Chief Minister told the civil society and NGOs’ leaders to speak to the crowd and control the situation. However, the news they brought back also shocked him.
“I asked some of the people to go and speak to the people and to their people and tell them to control and not to create any kind of scene out here. But once the leaders, NGO leaders had gone outside to talk to these people, they came back to tell us that they have no idea who these people are. They have never seen them,” he said.
“For the last 14 days since they (ACHIK, GHSMC, etc) have been here sitting and having this fasting, they didn’t see these people. And today for the first time they have come and some of them even looked, you know, in intoxicated and not really in the correct senses in some sense. And this was just said not by me, but by the NGO leaders themselves and then after that they, the NGO leaders themselves then had to come into the building and they could not leave from here themselves,” he added.
CM remained inside CMO building till 9.50 PM
Throughout the tense situation, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma remained inside the CMO building until 9:50 PM, closely overseeing the developments. Fortunately, the situation is currently under control, and the Chief Minister has returned safely to his residence.
Authorities are actively investigating the incident, and the community is urging for a thorough examination to identify and bring the instigators to justice. The public remains hopeful that such incidents of violence will not deter peaceful dialogue and cooperation among stakeholders as they work towards resolving the issues at hand.
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