Shillong, June 21: An all-party meeting in Meghalaya has asked the government to introduce multipurpose citizens' card to deal with law and order problems and activate the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) to help combat militancy in the state. "The all-party meeting asked why the government is not using the multipurpose national citizens' card in Meghalaya. We have informed the members that the government has already appealed to the Centre to include Meghalaya in the scheme. We are also writing it again," Chief Minister D D Lapang told reporters after the meeting here yesterday.

The meeting was convened by Lapang to discuss three issues -- law and order, reservation and inter-state boundary dispute. However, it was restricted only to the first item.

Main opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) did not attend the meeting as they asked for postponement of the meet.

Besides the ruling Congress, leaders from BJP, United Democratic Party, Meghalaya Democratic Party, Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement and Hill State People's Democratic Party were present in the meeting attended by chief secretary, Director General of Police and other senior officials.

The members asked the government to deal the situation with "firmness and thoroughness" and ensure that arrested people were not tortured.

The meeting proposed that younger generation should be made aware by the channels of DIPR on how to combat militancy. The parties also agreed in the meeting not to take any political mileage out of the problem. Bureau Report