Apology spares Shillong cops from House summons
Two Meghalaya traffic police personnel — who were summoned before a legislative assembly panel after they booked a legislator for traffic rule violation — were spared on Tuesday when a senior officer apologised on their behalf.
Two Meghalaya traffic police personnel — who were summoned before a legislative assembly panel after they booked a legislator for traffic rule violation — were spared on Tuesday when a senior officer apologised on their behalf.
Congress legislator Ronnie V Lyngdoh, who heads the five-member Privileges and Ethics Committee, was caught parking his vehicle in a no-parking zone in Shillong by traffic inspector Cherry Shadap and constable S Thapa.
He was issued a challan and asked to appear before a traffic in-charge.
Lyngdoh later summoned Shadap and Thapa, who were to appear before the panel on Tuesday.
But the meeting was called off after additional director general of police Rajiv Metha met Lyngdoh.
“The ADGP came to my house and apologised on behalf of the two police personnel. So we called off the meeting," Lyngdoh told HT from Shillong.
“The two policemen were summoned not for punitive action but to seek clarification on how the police declared all available space as no-parking zones.”
Lyngdoh, however, earned the wrath of the other members of the panel, who said he acted arbitrarily in issuing the notice to the police personnel. He should have gone by the rules and sought the approval of the assembly speaker, they said.
“Summons are sent to an individual only after proper deliberation and consensus among the committee members but no meeting was held in this case,” one of the members said.
The sequence of events has also irked leaders of students and social organisations, who said the apology to Lyngdoh was as unwarranted as the summons to the two traffic police personnel.
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