Insurgency in Meghalaya

Enforcement and compensation for victims is the responsibility of state and local governments and varied in effectiveness. The government generally did not effectively enforce laws related to bonded labor or labor trafficking laws, such as the Bonded Labor System Act. When inspectors referred violations for prosecution, court backlogs, inadequate prosecution, and a lack of prioritization sometimes resulted in acquittals.

The Army has expressed deep regret for the "unfortunate loss of lives" and said the matter would be investigated at the "highest level". It is due to this tag that the party’s repeated attempts to build a base outside Bengal have failed. This year, despite spending a lot of resources, the TMC failed to even open an account in the Goa assembly polls. In Bengali-majority Tripura too, the tag of being run from West Bengal has been an obstacle to the growth of the party.
Kidnapping of businessmen and politicians for ransom by terrorists also occurs regularly in the area, according to police records available and the National Crime Records Bureau . Analysts say that politicians use insurgents to terrorize people and control their votes. They pay insurgents to protect or run business ventures designed to cash in on development projects funded by the central government, such as road construction and social welfare schemes for rural residents. Contractors and distributors handpicked for public works projects act as fronts for terrorist outlets. Insurgent-controlled businesses collect income from coal mines in the Garo Hills. While government forces scramble to contain the rebel factions, however, top state officials are turning to them for political ends, in what law enforcement authorities, citizen’s groups and others describe as a symbiotic, if perilous, relationship.

In the days that followed, angry crowds threw stones and set fires outside of an army camp, killing at least one soldier and at least one additional civilian. Massive rallies, demonstrations, and business closures erupted across the state. Questions have been raised about the intelligence the army relied on as well as why the 21st Para, an elite commando unit, deployed instead of the local paramilitary Assam Rifles. The retired commandant of the Counter-insurgency and Jungle Warfare School stated that the paras should only be used for cross-border missions, and their actions set back counterinsurgency efforts in Nagaland by several years. Burma has never been a cohesive state, and the regime has faced a variety of revolts. Large regions outside the control of Naypyidaw are administered by powerful armed groups that cooperate against the central government.
Home Minister Amit Shah said all efforts are being made to restore peace in Manipur on instructions of  Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s Manipur in-charge Sambit Patra told reporters after the meeting. Leaders of different political parties, including the BJP, Congress, TMC, Left parties and others, are taking part in the meeting which is underway. On March 15, two contracted sanitation workers of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation in Andhra Pradesh died of suffocation inside an underground sewage line. According to an estimate by NGO Safai Karmachari Andolan, a longtime campaigner for eradication of manual scavenging, an estimated 1,500 individuals died cleaning septic tanks across the country between 2014 and 2016. Also see the Department of Labor’sFindings on the Worst Forms of Child Laborat/ilab/reports/child-labor/findings/.

Despite its dream of sectarian utopia, the group saw cracks due to its own ethnic differences, which then led to the breaking up of the parent body into two groups – the HNLC in 1992–1993 representing the Khasis and Jaintias, and the Achik Matgrik Liberation Army representing the Garos. The purpose of the movement had separatist tendencies at the inception — the creation of a separate homeland, or at least self-governaning territory for Khasis, Jaiñtias, and Garos. He said that now 60 per cent area of Assam, seven districts of Nagaland, 15 police stations in six districts of Manipur and Tripura and Meghalaya have become completely AFSPA-free, while in only one district of Arunachal Pradesh the AFSPA is yet to be lifted.
In some cases police reportedly held suspects without registering their arrests and denied detainees sufficient food and water. According to the NCRBPrison Statistics India 2015report, there were 1,401 prisons in the country with an authorized capacity of 366,781 persons. Persons awaiting trial accounted for more than two-thirds of the prison population. The law requires detention of juveniles in rehabilitative facilities, although at times authorities detained them in adult prisons, especially in rural areas. In Uttar Pradesh occupancy at most prisons was two and sometimes three times the permitted capacity, according to an adviser appointed by the Supreme Court. On June 19, Abhay Singh, an antiques dealer, died while in custody in Odisha, allegedly following seven days of torture.
As and when the State Government of Meghalaya seeks assistance of Central Armed Forces for maintaining peace and law & order, the same is provided keeping in mind requirement of the Security Forces in other parts of the country. Ministry of Home Affairs has deployed Central Armed Police Forces for counter-insurgency operations and the level of deployment in Meghalaya has increased over the years. For example, the level of deployment was 22 Companies in 2012, which has gone up to 28 Companies in 2015. It is also a fact that the Ministry of Home Affairs has to factor-in considerations of a large number of states for deployment of Central Armed Police Forces since there is a large demand for such deployment from different states facing internal security problems.

Such fines were often insufficient to deter violations, and authorities sporadically enforced them. The government amended the Child Labor Act in August 2016 to ban employment of children below the age of 14. The amended law also prohibits the employment of children between the ages of 14 and 18 in hazardous work except in mines. Children are prohibited from using flammable substances, explosives, or other hazardous material, as defined by the law.
Gogoi was also awarded the army chief’s commendation card for his action and was not individually punished. While the constitution does not contain an explicit right to privacy, the Supreme Court has found such a right implicit in other constitutional provisions. In August the Supreme Court ruled that privacy is a “fundamental right” in a case involving government collection of biographical information.

SAJ aims to highlight emerging regional trends, especially issues which call for more emphasis among decision makers and policy framers. The second batch of SF-10, a Special Force of the Meghalaya Police, with 152 commandos and a Unit of 50 recruits in Law and Order Riot Control were formally inducted on August 4, 2017. The first batch was  inducted after completing six months of basic training and a three-and-a-half month special commando counter-insurgency course on October 5, 2016.
Sangma also formed the Security and Law and Order subcommittee which would deliberate how to maintain peace and stability in the area. Army and central security forces remained stationed at conflict areas in the northeast. Tripura is the third-smallest state in the country, bordering states of Assam and Mizoram in the east and surrounded by Bangladesh on the other three sides adversely affecting its demography peace, progress, economy and tranquility. Over all, Tripura remained peaceful as the activities of NLFT and ATTF were contained. The demographic distortion has caused disturbance in the region which the union and state governments seem to overlook owing to the need for self-preservation due to narrow political considerations. There is a view that tribal insurgency in the northeast is the result of a feeling of increasing marginalisation of the concerned tribal groups.

That being said, while the aforementioned successes can at best be classified as tactical operational gains, the need to execute efficient governance aimed at alleviating the grievance of local population continues to be an essential element of the larger strategy for the regional security. As the militancy related fatalities peaked in 2014, the Meghalaya Police Special Weapons and Tactics teams along with Commando Battalion for Resolute Action commandos of Central Reserve Police Force launched Operation Hill Storm from July 2014 in four phases. The primary aim of the operation was to deny militants safe haven and at the same time establish a permanent Police presence in the affected regions.
What are the prime factors that pushed the youth to the extreme step of taking up arms against the state? Researchers can add many more searching questions so as to be able to address the issue better. Manipur and West Bengal governor La Ganesan on Sunday said Assam Rifles has been winning the hearts of people of the northeast through its dedication and service rendered to the region.