SHILLONG, MAY 13: Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar on Wednesday assured “full force” deployment in Lapangap village from Thursday to ensure farmers can continue cultivation without disturbance amid rising tension along the Karbi side.
The assurance came after hundreds of villagers, led by the Dorbar Shnong of Lapangap and supported by several NGOs, marched to the Meghalaya Secretariat seeking protection following alleged harassment by people from the Karbi side.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Dhar said the government is committed to safeguarding the livelihood of the villagers and maintaining peace in the area.
“The people of Lapangap village and some of the NGOs met me about this Lapangap issue. There is something happening for the last few days. It is the time for the farmers to go and cultivate their land but there is some disturbances from the Karbi side,” Dhar said.
“We had a very fruitful meeting. I have assured them that from the government, we will try our level best to protect our people and peace should be maintained as usual,” he added.
Clarifying that the immediate concern was not the interstate boundary dispute, Dhar said the focus of the discussion was on protecting the livelihood of farmers.
“Today is not about border issue. We were discussing about their livelihood which are part of the Lapangap village, which has been normal, and they have cultivated their paddy fields in the Karbi side. The border issue is a state level subject,” he stated.
He further said the government has assured villagers that additional security personnel will be deployed from Thursday onwards.
“Today they came to request as some of the Karbi people are disturbing them and we have assured them that we will provide them full force from tomorrow onwards to ensure cultivation is done without any disturbances,” Dhar said.
On coordination with Assam, the Deputy Chief Minister said discussions between the deputy commissioners of both sides are ongoing.
“Both the deputy commissioners will discuss, they had even discussed this in the last few days, but there is some more to be discussed and since the government of Assam has formed the new government, so obviously, our chief minister told me that he will discuss this issue with the Assam chief minister,” he said.
He added that Meghalaya is awaiting the appointment of the new regional committee chairman from the Assam side before holding further discussions with counterparts.
Confirming additional deployment, Dhar said, “It is already there but some more force is needed so we are providing more forces to ensure safety and security of the people living in the border. We will deploy as per needed.”
“We have assured the Lapangap delegation that we will provide sufficient force so that their activities should not be disturbed,” he added.
Assistant Headman of Lapangap village Samkhih Situng said the primary demand placed before the government was protection for farmers during cultivation.
“First demand we had raised to the government is to give full protection to the farmers of Lapangap village,” Situng said.
“We had a meeting with the deputy chief minister Sniawbhalang Dhar and he assured us that from tomorrow onwards, the farmers of Lapangap village can continue with our cultivation,” he added.
Situng warned that villagers may take further steps if the government fails to honour its assurances.
“As already discussed in the meeting that if the assurance given by the government does not happen we will take other steps to ensure we get protection while farmers are carrying out their cultivation,” he said.
Describing the difficulties faced by cultivators, Situng alleged repeated acts of harassment.
“We faced harassment all the time. We cultivate in our land, we do ploughing and Karbi came at night to destroy our paddy fields. That is the harassment that we faced from our Karbi,” he said.
While expressing partial satisfaction with the outcome of the meeting, Situng urged the government to take the matter seriously and ensure long-term security deployment.
“Not hundred percent but 95% percent we are happy with the decision taken by the government and hope that the government will take Lapangap issue very seriously and to provide us adequate security so that we can carry out with our cultivation freely. We want full deployment of force like SF-10 and all,” he said.
He also said senior police officials present during the meeting assured immediate action.
“IG and SP of West Jaintia were also present in the meeting and they assured us that from tomorrow onwards they will deploy full force to give security and protection to Lapangap farmers,” Situng added.
