Shillong: Calling upon the police personnel to be 'pro-people', Meghalaya Chief Minister DD Lapang on Saturday underlined the need for police-people cooperation to deal with law and order problems.
"There is a belief that the police are anti-people. We have to discover the defect and diagnose it," Lapang said while addressing the passing out parade of two batches of trainees at North Eastern Police Academy at Umsaw on the outskirts of Shillong.
He said the police-people cooperation was essential to deal with law and order problems.
Lauding the success of security forces deployed in the North East, Lapang said the region needs frontline officers and not those who prefer to be in the 'back benches'.
Rubbishing the notion that North East was hit by insurgency, he said, "People from outside see the region as an untouchable place unfit to live though it is a safe place."
A total of 414 trainees from North Eastern states, including two woman deputy superintendents of police and 20 woman cadets passed out from NEPA.
CM slams Meghalaya militants on bandh
Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang on Saturday slammed the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) as the 24-hour bandh called by the outfit evoked mixed response in the state.
Banks and some other business establishments were closed. In some localities here and other parts of the state shopkeepers defied the bandh call, official sources said.
Lapang said, "Shopkeepers keeping shops open show that the people do not accept HNLC."
Traffic was thin on the highways and no untoward incident was reported, the police said.
HNLC refused to call off the bandh which they called in protest against Union Home minister P Chidambaram's visit to the state.
The outfit said the bandh was a "protest against the Centre who failed to address the problems of the indigenous people".
Describing the government's announcement of Chidambaram's visit as a "political mistake", HNLC in an email yesterday said, "Such mistakes have brought trouble to the people of the state."
PTI
First Published: Saturday, December 19, 2009, 16:32