In a move to fortify the safety architecture of Shillong and address crimes against women and children, the Meghalaya Government is rolling out an extensive CCTV surveillance grid across 47 localities within the next two months. Chief Minister Conrad Sangma announced that seven localities have already been covered, while installations in another forty are underway and expected to be completed by November or December. The initiative, forming part of the government’s integrated safety strategy, is aimed at creating a vigilant, community-driven mechanism to ensure a secure urban ecosystem.
The Chief Minister said the government had a “productive stakeholders’ meeting with Rangbah Shnongs, faith-based organizations, educational institutions, NGOs, and community leaders to discuss, collaborate, and find tangible solutions to the issues surrounding crime against children and women.” He added, “The stakeholders presented the issues in their communities and also gave good suggestions to the issues. We spoke at large about awareness programs, counselling and training for counsellors, installation of CCTVs and street lights, including the repair of non-functional ones, vigilance in drug-prone zones, de-addiction and detoxifying centres, etc.”
Conrad emphasized that the meeting was a step toward building a collective social response. “We will create a movement, involving all stakeholders to address the problems grappling the community like drug abuse and drug peddling, teenage pregnancies, school dropouts, stigmatisation of victims of crimes and abuse, sensationalism of crimes. We will come up with pilot programs to teach awareness to children about safe and unsafe touch, empowering them to speak up and stay safe. Such programs are aimed to create a society that does not shy away from reporting and addressing such issues,” he said.
He added that the government would also extend support to Dorbar Shnongs already working at the grassroots to combat such social challenges. “While the government’s efforts are ongoing to tackle the issues, a unified approach is the need of the hour to ensure each and everyone of us take action to ensure a safe and secure environment for children, women, and society at large. Thank everyone who participated today,” he remarked.
Expanding on the state’s ongoing initiatives, Conrad said, “We had a consultative meeting with the different Rongbah Shnongs of various localities, leaders of faith-based organisations, and NGOs. The idea was to have a consultation and take suggestions from everybody to improve the overall safety and security of women, and especially of children in Shillong, as well as the surrounding areas and the state as a whole. We have, of course, seen that there has been some decline in numbers, but the frequency with which some incidents happen in the last few weeks and months is a matter of concern for us. So as a government, we would like to be serious about it and ensure that we take steps to reduce these incidents and see how society, the Rongbah Shnongs, and organisations with the government can work together to achieve that goal.”
He said the Shillong Municipal Board has identified 47 localities for CCTV coverage, with each locality to have three to five surveillance points. “Seven have already been completed and another forty localities will be wired and CCTVs would be active in about another sixty days’ time. If there are any more localities which need to be covered, we will take necessary steps to do that also,” he said.
The project will be executed in two phases — the first involving the establishment of local command centres under the supervision of Rongbah Shnongs and headmen, and the second integrating these local units with the state’s Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) at New Shillong.
The Chief Minister highlighted that the consultation also led to several key suggestions, including the need for increased counselling infrastructure and awareness campaigns. “Very good suggestions came up where they have urged that more counselling centres and counsellors should be in place so that these youngsters who require this support can get that kind of counselling, which we have definitely noted down, and we are going to act on that. There were suggestions regarding going for large-scale publicity and awareness programmes related to youth issues so that awareness can be done at different levels,” he stated.
Underscoring the need for social vigilance, Conrad urged citizens to be cautious about misinformation. “Today, because of social media, a lot of false news and information come out. There are very quick news that gets viral which are unconfirmed. Because of those unconfirmed news, suddenly you find the public reacting, large crowds gathering, and blaming some individual just because of what they saw on WhatsApp or YouTube. These kinds of situations could lead to law and order issues. Hence, we should not react to different videos or messages without verification. We must trust our local leadership, the local Durbar, Rongbah Shnongs, and inform the police so that the right steps can be taken,” he appealed.
Conrad further stressed that awareness and training at the community level are critical. “As a community, we realised that we need to get involved in awareness programmes. There are many areas in which we are not involved, especially when it comes to social issues and problems like these. Simple things like, for example, when somebody touches you, what is the right touch and what is not a right touch — this kind of awareness for a child is important. Parents, elders, and professional counsellors play an important role, and this infrastructure and social network need to be created,” he said.
With the installation of CCTV networks, improved street lighting, counselling frameworks, and a unified community-driven movement, the Meghalaya Government aims to build a resilient ecosystem of safety and awareness — one that not only prevents crime but also empowers citizens to participate actively in creating a secure environment for all.
