SHILLONG, DEC 9: Thma-U-Rangli-Juki (TUR) demanded the ‘scrapping-off’ the Meghalaya Prevention Detention Act (MPDA) and the Meghalaya Maintenance Public Order Act (MMPO) saying that these two laws are turning Meghalaya into a ‘Police-State’. “We demand that the Meghalaya government must immediately do-away and scrap-off the two draconian black laws which are designed to subvert every tenet of democratic norms besides instutionalized human rights violations,” TUR leader Angela Rngad said during a campaign.
Rngad was speaking at the ‘Challenge the draconian black laws in Meghalaya’ campaign which kicked started from Khyndai-Lad amid tight security on Monday.
The campaign which was proposed to be held tomorrow to commemorate with the International Human Rights Day was preponed to Monday due to the bandh called by the 13 pro-ILP groups in Khasi and Jaintia hills region.
Rngad said that the state government is turning Meghalaya into a ‘Police-State’. “We are totally against the MPDA as it is an illegal act which allows the police to arrest anybody at anytime they want and the victim is not even allowed to fight for his right for at least three years. This is a clear abuse of Human Rights,” she said.
Though the government claims that MPDA is needed to ensure peace and security, Rngad said, “However, such law has been misused and abused by the government, giving it the unlimited power to choose the group, section to label as criminal and to attack with legal violence of preventive detention, legal ostracism and financial extortion.”
Recently, seventy-one pro Inner-Line Permit (ILP) activists were arrested and booked under MMPO and some under the MPDA for their alleged involvement in the several cases related to arsons during the three months agitations demanding for implementation of the ILP to check influx in the state.
Saying implementation of the MMPO is illegal to stifle the voices of the people against the government, Rngad said, “The recent amendment of the MMPO by the state government was done without prior consent of the state assembly.” She said the cabinet approval to amend is not at all acceptable which shows that the state government wanted to infringe into the democratic rights and push the people to the wall by suppressing their voices.
Terming the government as the most corrupted one in the country, Rngad was of the opinion that to further their corrupt activities the government has enforced the MPDA and MMPO.
She said if, the centre can scraped the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) the state government should do the same by doing away with the MPDA and MMPO.’ – By Our Reporter
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