Meghalaya govt keen on improving, strengthening police force in state

SHILLONG:

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, on Tuesday, held a meeting with the state police officials to discuss the possibilities of strengthening the police force by increasing manpower and upgrading the infrastructure.

Briefing media persons in Shillong on Tuesday, Sangma said there is a strong need to strengthen the police force from three angles – improving the existing infrastructure, upgrading the current system and increasing manpower.

“Within a week or ten days, we will be taking a decision on the first part – on improving the existing outposts, police stations and battalions,” Sangma said.

The meeting also discussed the expansion of the overall presence of police outposts in certain critical zones and also the filling up of posts and manpower required to make the police outposts/stations efficient in most of the districts.

“This would lead to the creation of new posts, creation of new locations, ensuring that the existing locations where manpower is less will also be improved and augmented,” the CM added.

Furthermore, he stated that the government would have to look at the financial implications to ensure that the right decision is taken.

A discussion on raising new battalions was also discussed during the meeting where the Director General of Police (DGP) and other police officials have placed on record the need to go for new battalions.

“We are examining those aspects and seeing what are the financial implications, the support that the government of India is going to give, the different rules and regulations into this and balance it out between the entire decision making of investing on the existing system and (creation) of new ones and try to see how best we can use the limited resources that are available,” Sangma said.

“The government is committed to ensuring that we strengthen our police system, infrastructure, upgrade and increase our manpower where ever is required and expand where ever is possible so that we have a robust and stronger police network and system in place,” he added.

Reacting to queries on the status of the 7th and 8th Battalions approved by the Centre, the CM said that the Centre will support only a certain percentage of the running and non-running expenditure in raising these battalions, after which, within a year’s time, the entire financial impact will fall on the state government.

He maintained that with the initial investment which is not big compared to the overall impact in the next 20 to 30 years to come, the government has to examine all those aspects – whether to improve the existing outposts and system first and expand the battalions later or vice versa.

“We have a lot of police stations but half of these don’t have manpower and infrastructure. So, we have to prioritise our decision and investment,” he added.

(Edited by Ibankyntiew Mawrie)

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