Shillong, July 27: The second day of protest by Hynñiewtrep Youths’ Council (HYC) against the Congress-led government for refusing to discuss their demand to implement various laws including Inner Line Permit (ILP) to check influx witnessed tearing of pictures of the chief minister, Mukul Sangma and his cabinet colleagues into pieces, and dumped the torn photographs into a dustbin.
HYC activists led by its president, Peter J. Lawai tore pictures of the chief minister Mukul Sangma and 11 ministers during a sit-in demonstration organized at the parking lot near Additional Secretariat here on Thursday.
After tearing the pictures, the HYC activists, mostly members of the central executive committee, threw the pictures into dustbin which also had the CM’s picture pasted on it.
The demonstration was part of the protest against the government after the chief minister and cabinet ministers refused to discuss on the 14-point of demands to bring effective laws to prevent influx into the state by ignoring the invitation of the HYC.
HYC general secretary Robertjune Kharjahrin said the peaceful agitations was organized as a mark of protest against the state government’s decision not to pay heed to the Council’s demands.
Tearing of the pictures came as a shock to officials of the district administration, who prohibited burning of any effigy during the protest, when HYC resorted to tearing of pictures of the political masters.
On Wednesday, the HYC staged black flag protest by hanging banners and flags in the residences of the chief minister and other ministers in the city, and they were alleged of violating the terms and conditions of the permission given to them to hold the protest.
“They charged us of taking out a procession. But the fact is, the permission was given to hold black flag protest in the entire city and they cannot expect our members to be ‘spiderman’ or ‘superman’ to fly instead of walking on the road to put up black flags,” Kharjahrin said.
The HYC leader further warned the government and police to restrain from any kind of provocative acts.
“The Council has over 4,000 members spread across Khasi-Jaintia region. Now we are taking out peaceful protest and it is better for the government not to provoke us,” he said.
As part of the protest, the HYC has also invited all MLAs who are supporting the ruling Congress-led MUA-II government for a discussion on the 14-point of demands on Saturday.
Announcing that this will be the final call for such discussion, Kharjahrin however said that failing to attend the discussion will only show that they (MLAs) are also having a hand to deny the indigenous people the right to be protected.
Shillong, July 27: Seven labourers were arrested after they were caught red handed while illegally extracting coal from a quarry in a remote village in East Jaintia Hills District on Thursday.
The arrest was made following a raid conducted by magistrate and police in mining area at Mookhain, police said.
The accused have been identified as Hame Manner (19), Robert Dhar (24), Pdianglang Suiam (23), Md. Joynal Abedin (42 ), Md. Motiar Rahman (40 yrs), Md. Sahidur Islam (32) and Md. Jakir Hussain (35).
According to police, the coal quarry belongs to a lady identified as Hun of Mookhain village.
Police seized 307 gelatin sticks and 290 electronic detonators from the coal quarry during the raid in violation of the orders passed by the NGT which is banning unscientific mining in the state in the past three years.
