A CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: The East Khasi Hills district administration in Meghalaya on Friday has decided to impose night curfew in the villages bordering Bangladesh to curb the cross border movements of those from within India and also from Bangladesh.
"These people both from India and Bangladesh live in close proximity with each other and are involved in trade," Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said.
He said that the curfew will be effective from 7 pm to 6 am.
However, the Deputy Chief Minister stated that with the COVID-19 spreading all over the world and the situation is worsening in Bangladesh, the State government has decided to impose restrictions on the movement of people in the border villages.
Tynsong said that on Friday, various traditional heads living along the international border in the eastern part of the State during a meeting with him expressed their concern over the movement of people to and from Bangladesh during the pandemic.
The Deputy Chief Minister also informed that he would soon convene a meeting with the Director-General of Police of Meghalaya on the need to strengthen manpower in the border villages.
"We discussed on the need to deploy Home Guard Volunteers to man the border villages," the Deputy Chief Minister said.
Meanwhile, the Sordar of Raid Lyngkhat Sojol Kharrymba informed that in spite of trade with Bangladesh being suspended due to COVID-19 some "greedy" people are indulging in smuggling various items to that country.
"We find it difficult to track them since they do their illegal activities in the dead of the night," Kharrymba said.
Napoleon Siej, the Sirdar of Nongjri another border village informed that the smugglers indulge in illegally selling items like biri and cigarettes.