Five days after his wife was chased and almost waylaid by a group of miscreants on a National Highway as she was traveling from Guwahati to Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh governor JP Rajkhowa has asked the police to set up helpline numbers so that people in distress could get immediate help.
‘The Arunachal Pradesh DGP, in consultation with his Assam counterpart must set up a mechanism to provide at least three mobile helpline numbers that are active round the clock, so that travelling in highways in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh can avail timely assistance whenever they require,’ a Raj Bhavan press release quoting Governor Rajkhowa said.
The Governor also appealed to the people, particularly the victims of harassments, humiliations, forced extortions and other illegal activities on highways to come forward and file formal complaints or lodge FIR with details of the incidents to the police so that the authorities could take up the matters with their counterparts in other states. It was on June 4 that Rita Rajkhowa, the first lady of Arunachal Pradesh, was chased by miscreants as she was traveling in a single Raj Bhavan vehicle from Guwahati to Itanagar.
The miscreants traveling in a Maruti Swift Dezire began following her vehicle from Sonapur on the eastern outskirts of Guwahati and chased her for several kilometers until she reached Jagiroad and informed the police about it. The police meanwhile have arrested six persons, three of whom hailed from Uttar Pradesh.
Governor Rajkhowa, who is known for his proactive role when he was an IAS officer in Assam, also asked affected persons to send a copy of their complaints to the Itanagar Raj Bhavan, with the promise that he would then take up the issues with his counterparts in Assam and other neighbouring states. He particularly pointed out that there was an urgent need for regular police patrol on highways, and particularly referred to the Itanagar-Guwahati, Jonai-Tezpur, Nagaon-Jagun streches in Assam and the Itanagar-Hollongi and Itanagar-Ziro sections in Arunachal Pradesh.
