Shillong:
East Shillong MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh said that community patrolling should be done in the presence of police.
Speaking to the press on Monday, she said that there was a meeting with the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police on Monday morning along with the Dorbar of Laitumkhrah.
Lauding the efforts of the Dorbar Shnong to restore law and order in and around Laitumkhrah, she said, “We talked about community patrolling which should be done in the presence of a police. If you do not have enough officers to assist the communities, then we would like not to continue with that or make sure that we will go only in the company of the police.”
The patrolling started following the argument between two groups and the subsequent burning of police cars on the same night in Laitumkhrah Police Station.
Lyngdoh also expressed concern over bootlegging as seen in certain places such as Urkaliar, arguing that the entire region has become an eyesore.
“Government has allowed legal wine stores, why do people have to bootleg? We have to take a hard stand on this. I may be unpopular because I am saying this but it is about time, we do that as well,” she said.
She reported that new areas have become vulnerable to bootlegging and observed that a strong stand has to be taken on this.
Suggesting the idea of initiating traffic volunteering, she said, “We have requested the DC to allow our durbars to handle certain areas of traffic where we can likely demarcate fresh spaces for parking which are already at our disposal but we also need government to permit us to have volunteers from the community.”
Stating that if manpower is a major challenge of the police department, she said that the state has enough unemployed youth who can be trained and given skills to manage irrational parking, wrong parking, and politely help students cross the roads.
On the issue of hawkers, she said that she is looking at a scheme of having paved footpaths with overhead coverings and good lighting which will help the students and parents and others.
She has expressed her unhappiness at the progress of the construction of the Laitumkhrah market and maintained that the work has to be completed in March 2024.
Lyngdoh expressed concern on the presence of huge piles of unattended cables which was obstructing the footpath and the meeting also discussed the random digging of roads to install pipes.