Newly-appointed Meghalaya home minister Lahkmen Rymbui on Thursday asked the Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisation (CoMSO) not to carry out any anti-infiltration drive.
Meghalaya home (police) minister Rymbui assured that he would review the functioning and strength of the directorate of anti-infiltration next week.
Rymbui made this appeal when a CoMSO delegation met him in the state secretariat on Thursday.
CoMSO volunteers were doing the checking at various anti-infiltration check gates especially along the inter-state and international borders in order to detect illegal immigrants who enter the state without valid documents.
The CoMSO said the drive was a part of its ‘direct action’ stir as the Centre is delaying the implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Meghalaya.
“I have asked the CoMSO to call off the checking, as people may take advantage and create unnecessary law and order problem,” Rymbui told reporters.
“The state government is not sitting idle and when the government has taken steps, they should not do it, and we do not want anything that will create law and order situation,” Rymbui added.
The CoMSO delegation told the home (police) minister that they were conducting the checking in the border areas.
The Meghalaya home (police) minister, however, said the government cannot allow anything that may lead to people taking law into their own hands.
On ILP demand, Rymbui said it is the duty of the state government to engage with the Centre so that the ILP is implemented.
He also said he would review the strength of the directorate of the anti-infiltration next week.
CoMSO chairman Robertjune Kharjahrin said the volunteers will continue checking since the directorate of anti-infiltration does not have enough manpower and the volunteers were only assisting the state police at various anti-infiltration check gates.
“We are not taking law into our own hands. We are only assisting the state police in various anti-infiltration check gates,” Kharjahrin said.
Stating that the CoMSO does not believe in violence, Kharjahrin also condemned arson incidents in Shillong in which two vehicles including a government vehicle were set ablaze by miscreants in two different places of the city on Wednesday evening.