SHILLONG, NOV 7: Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) wants immediate intervention of the union minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju to ensure that AFSPA is not extended to the militancy-infested Garo hills region by the centre.
In a letter submitted Rijiju, the 16 members ruling GHPA led by the National People Party (NPP) has also suggested to the centre to instead scrapped the AFSPA completely from north eastern region. “We feel that imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is not the way forward in such situations and feel that such draconian acts should be completely scrapped,” the letter said.
GHADC chief executive member Denang T Sangma said, “We strongly oppose the imposition of AFSPA in Garo hills region of Meghalaya and appeal to the Government of India to take appropriate measures to resolve this issue at the earliest.”
The demand was made in view of the recent order issued by the Meghalaya high court directing the Centre to consider imposition of AFSPA in Garo Hills region.
Stating that the one of major causes of insurgency, in any region has been socio-economic conditions that prevail in the area, Sangma said, “We strongly feel that military action is not a viable solution.”
According to him, there needs to be a multi-pronged approach where take socio economic measures are taken which will bring development to the region and ultimately lead to employment opportunities for the youth of the region.
“Problem is socio economic factors and militancy is a result of this problem and by not understanding the cause and effect factors we are not targeting the root cause,” GHADC CEM said.
Meanwhile, the GHADC members also pointed out that on the contrary states and regions where AFSPA has been imposed militancy has gone from bad to worse.
“There have also been many instances of human rights violations that have taken place and, instead of targeting militants, sometimes the common innocent citizens have become the target, which is very unfortunate,” the members stated in the letter to Rijiju.
The letter also stated that there have been many organisation, political parties and leaders who have been raising their voice against the imposition of AFSPA in many states and the concerns and voices are only getting louder.
The MDCs while referring to Rijiju, who is also from the north eastern region said, “You will understand the complexities of the North East and will agree that, though there might be different challenges the region faces, this is not the solution to those problems.”
The letter said there is a need to handle the region and people with care and ensure that the youth who have gone in the wrong path are brought back to the main stream and expressed full faith that the Ministry of Home Affairs would take necessary steps in the best interest of the people of Garo hills and NE as a whole.- By Our Reporter
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