A day after a scuffle between residents of Mawshbuit and 58 Gorkha Training Centre (GTC), the East Khasi Hills administration today convened an emergency meeting between the army officials and the Dorbar Shnong. Members of pressure groups were also present.
Remote Mawshbuit is accessible only through a gate on a road controlled by the GTC. Villagers have previously protested about restrictions imposed by the army on their ingress and egress through the only road that connects them to the outside world.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Richard Nongkhlaw demanded that 58 GTC should remove the gate on the road leading to their village.
“We demand that the gate should be immediately removed because we are always harassed by the army personnel, especially at night,” Nongkhlaw said.
According to the Rangbah Shnong, from time to time such incidents occur in the area and it is time that the government resolve the problem once and for all so that peace and tranquility prevail.
“The village came first and the army personnel later. The road was built first, the villagers were always there but the army came later,” Nongkhlaw added.
On allegations that the 58 GTC personnel had to close the gate after some civilians, who were in an inebriated state, were driving their vehicles on it at high speed, the Rangbah Shnong dismissed this as an excuse to cover up the army’s behaviour.
Mawshbuit Dorbar Shnong treasurer, Nickson Jonas Kharumnuid, pointed to the incongruousness of the 58 GTC gate by comparing it to the situation at the nearby Assam Rifles property near Madanrting.
