Shillong MP Vincent Pala alleged today that police in uniform are rampantly extorting money from truck drivers along the road throughout Jaiñtia Hills.
“I have just come from Jaiñtia Hills and the plight of the people there is beyond words,” Pala told Highland Post today. “A road trip that normally takes two hours to get to my village took more than three hours yesterday because of the rampant daylight extortion and harassment by the men in uniform against trucks carrying goods all along the stretch of road.”
“When I inquired about the matter from my friends, they say that these activities are usual and the collections are due to pressure coming from higher level for running their [political] parties,” he alleged, adding that extortion is going on from Byrnihat to Ratacherra.
The Congress MP put the blame squarely on the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, saying that it did not have the will to address the problem and that the public will continue to suffer under it.
“People earning their daily bread and butter are in great misery from all this harassment and extortion,” he said.
