Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 10: Director General of Police LR Bishnoi today said the police have arrested 234 drug peddlers and drug users in 2022 and seized drugs worth over Rs 50 crore from them surpassing the state’s collective records of the past 50 years.

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The police seized over 7 kg of heroin worth over Rs 45.22 crore and over 27,000 bottles of cough syrup worth over Rs 1.38 crore last year, he said.

“We have arrested 234 drug peddlers and drug users which include 20 women last year and seized drugs worth over Rs 50 crore,” Bishnoi said.

The drugs seized include over 7 kg of heroin worth over Rs 45.22 crore and over 27,000 bottles of cough syrup worth over Rs 1.38 crore last year besides other items like ganja (nearly 4 tonnes), opium (over 600 gm), methamphetamine tablets (over 12,800 tablets), he said.

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The DGP said that the recovery in 2022 has surpassed the recorded seizure of the past 50 years in this hill state and 116 cases were registered.

He also said that there is an upward trend of arrest, seizure and registration of drugs related cases this year too.

“In the first 70 days, 80 people were arrested and heroin seized was over 3 kg, ganja seized was 140 kg, 60,000 tablets, 22,000 bottles of cough syrups and Rs 28 lakh cash,” he said.

The DGP informed that 25 per cent of the arrests made were of traffickers from other states which include Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur besides Punjab, Bihar and Bengal.

Repenting that many of the jailed drug peddlers and users got bail, Bishnoi said that delay in getting reports from the Forensic Laboratories resulted in their securing bail from the courts.

He also informed that the police department has formed a supervisory committee headed by SP (CID) to monitor drug-related cases to ensure speedy submission of chargesheets and cases do not fail.

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 8: Forty-five of the fifty-nine winning candidates in the 2023 Assembly elections are crorepatis. This was as per a statement issued by Meghalaya Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) after having analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 59 winning candidates.

These include 20 (77 per cent) out of 26 from NPP, 9(82 per cent) out of 11 from UDP, 4 (80 per cent) out of 5 from AITC, 3 (60 per cent) out of 5 from INC and 2 (100 per cent) out of 2 from BJP winning candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

The average of assets per winning candidate in the Meghalaya Assembly Elections 2023 is Rs 10.14 Crore while it was at Rs 7.18 crore in 2018.

The average assets per winning candidate for 26 NPP winning candidates is Rs 6.83 crore, 11 UDP winning candidates is Rs 19.96 crore, 5 AITC winning candidates is Rs 12.72 crore, 5 INC winning candidates is Rs 3.03 crore, 2 BJP winning candidates is Rs 14.91 crore and 2 Hill State People’s Democratic Party winning candidates have average assets worth Rs 32.21 crore.

The top three winning candidates with high assets are UDP chief and Mairang MLA Metbah Lyngdoh with Rs 1,46,31,51,838,  HSPDP MLA Methodius Dkhar – Rs 55,10,00,487 and  Sniawbhalang Dhar  – Rs 45,35,80,343, while the winning candidates with the low assets are AITC legislator from Dadenggre Rupa M. Marak with Rs 5,19,949, VPP legislator from North Shillong with Rs 13,61,442 and UDP legislator from Mokaiaw Nujorki Sungoh with Rs 18,73,220.

A total of 8 winning candidates have declared liabilities of Rs 1 crores and above. Of this, the top 3 winning candidates are Metbah Lyngdoh with Rs 44,54,23,816, Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar with Rs 7,28,20,406 and Sosthenes Sohtun with Rs 4,78,90,545.

The 3 winning candidates who have declared the highest income in their Income Tax Returns include Sniawbhalang Dhar with Rs 30,39,76,984, Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar with Rs 4,64,89,741 and  Methodius Dkhar with Rs 2,43,95,433.

Also, 3(12 per cent) out of 26 NPP winning candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

2 (8 per cent) out of 26 NPP winning candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

With regards to educational qualification, 17 (29 per cent) winning candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 8th pass and 12th pass, while 39 (66 per cent) winning candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate and above. 3 winning candidates are Diploma holders.

37 (63 per cent) winning candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 50 years while 22 (37 per cent) winning candidates have declared their age to be between 51 and 80.

Meanwhile, only 3 (5 per cent) winning candidates are women.