Why do outsiders have easy access to Meghalaya Secretariat building?

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: It's surprising that even during the pandemic, the Meghalaya State Secretariat is not out of bounds for anyone coming from outside the State. This is particularly true with respect to people in fixing appointments with Ministers or other senior officials concerned.

Amidst the stringent restrictions imposed by the State government to combat the inter-state movement, visitors or well wishers as far as New Delhi, Chennai and nearby Guwahati enter the State Secreteriat.

The registers at the Rilang Building (housing the Secretariat) speak it all. Personnel involved in monitoring the entry of visitors and those with the Security cell of the Police department will divulge as to on how people from outside the State enter the State Secretariat even in these COVID times.

Security personnel manning the main Rilang building said, "We have the list but we are not mandated to check about their clinical COVID test reports are shown to us. We are allowed to just monitor through the infra ray thermometer," stated a security official on condition of anonimity. Another said, "Restrictions to the State Secreteriat are confined to the middle-class and lower-class section of the populace; the big souls gain entry through their prior appointments with the Ministers concerned."

Another moot poser is whether these people from outside the State go for quarantine after entering the State through the valid entry points. There is no answer to this. But a top police official told The Sentinel on Wednesday that permission to anyone inside the State secretariat is based on appointments with the officials concerned. "We don't directly deal with medical issues except for scanning every individual who enters the State Secretreiat to ensure safety and security," stated the top official, while admitting that the records illustrated that visitors from outside the State do enter the Secretariat despite the COVID-19 restrictions.

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