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| James Sangma |
Shillong, Aug. 3: The Nationalist Congress Party today asked Meghalaya chief minister D.D. Lapang to listen to the voice of the people and remove director-general of police Anil Pradhan, thereby giving a boost to the cause of the agitating non-governmental organisations.
The NGOs, under the banner of the Steering Committee Against Murder of Democracy have been demanding the DGP’s ouster for the release of Congress politician Thomas Nongtdu who had allegedly funded the Shillong jailbreak that took place on May 31.
The support from the main opposition party in the state came barely a few hours before the start of the night road blockade called by the committee tonight.
The committee has also called a night “public curfew” on Thursday and Friday after the government refused to remove the DGP despite the findings of the administrative inquiry panel which stated that Pradhan had influenced subordinate police officials to release Nongtdu.
The NCP, in a statement issued here today, appealed to the chief minister to “acknowledge the voice of civil society on the removal of the DGP in order to carry out an impartial investigation into the jailbreak”.
According to James Sangma, the spokesman for the Meghalaya unit of NCP, the party is “very concerned” over the prevailing situation.
“We strongly urge the MUA government to respond to the demand of the committee and remove Pradhan”, Sangma said.
He said the DGP should be removed in order to ensure a free and fair judicial probe and in keeping with convention.
“We also condemn the cabinet decision to dismiss the administrative inquiry report prepared by principal secretary (home) into the Shillong jailbreak episode,” Sangma added.
Earlier, the Opposition BJP had also condemned the stand of the government in not willing to pay heed to the NGOs’ demand.
BJP organising secretary Dipayan Chakraborty said the party in a meeting held on August 1 expressed concern over the decision of the MUA government to arrest the leaders of the committee.
The party also condemned the decision of the government in this regard.
“We fail to understand the logic followed by the state government in taking such a revengeful decision and it appears that all the members of the cabinet wanted to murder democracy in Meghalaya,” Chakraborty said.
The BJP also wanted to know whether the Congress-led government thought that there would be no opposition to whatever happens in Meghalaya
“The party also fails to understand how the government follows double standards in the case of DGP Anil Pradhan while another Meghalaya police official, W.R. Marbaniang, was earlier removed soon after a murder took place at his residence,” Chakraborty said.
The BJP hoped that the government would withdraw its decision not to remove Pradhan. “Otherwise, a law and order problem will arise and the state government will be held responsible for this”.
Pradhan today applied for 60 days’ leave on medical grounds in an attempt to defuse the tension arising out of the agitation of the NGOs.
Earlier, soon after the road blockade began at 7pm, vehicles were off the road. The blockade affected normal flow of traffic.