Guwahati: A mob of around 300 people pelted stones at the Meghalaya Chief Minister’s office in Tura on Monday evening, injuring six police personnel, as CM Conrad Sangma was conducting a meeting with the agitating groups.
Sangma was trapped inside the Chief Minister’s office (CMO) for around an hour but was unharmed. A police vehicle was set on fire and two fire tenders were damaged in the stone pelting. The police resorted to firing tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.
Sangma had come to Tura from Shillong to hold a meeting with the protesting Garo civil society organisations such as ACHIK and Garoland State Movement Committee (GHSM), who have been on a hunger strike for 14 days, demanding to establish Tura, in the West Garo Hills, as the state’s winter capital and retrospective implementation of the roster system/ backlog policy – a fraught issue in the state.
Meghalaya reserves 40 per cent of its government jobs for Khasis and Garos respectively. The Meghalaya High Court last year directed the adoption of a ‘roster system’ which would record the actual allocation of vacancies.
If slots earmarked for Garos in a particular recruitment exercise remained unfilled, people from other communities would be considered, and vice-versa. The court had not specified whether this would be implemented prospectively or retrospectively.
Sangma, himself a Garo leader, said the groups had been “more or less satisfied” with the outcome of the meeting before the ruckus began. “We had already agreed on meeting in Shillong and discussing this further with different stakeholders,” he said.
The situation is under control but tense, said the CM’s office. Section 144 was imposed in Tura town with immediate effect. Sangma said he will allocate Rs 50,000 to the families of each of the injured personnel and the state government will cover the cost of their medical treatment.
A night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am has also been imposed in Tura.