Nobody will stand in line to get the registration
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday admitted that harassment will be there if the implementation of Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act (MRSSA) is not done properly.
To a query as to whether the process will cause undue harassment to outsiders, Sangma told reporters on Tuesday that almost every country has different rules and maintained that ‘harassment will be there if implementation is not done properly’.
He added that the state government is moving aggressively to ensure that the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act is implemented.
He said Congress MP Jairam Ramesh repeated what the leader of opposition, Mukul Sangma said about the matter that the MRSSA 2016 should be implemented and it can be amended if need be.
“Acts of the government are to be implemented and the implementation requires a process to be followed. Let me assure that the process has already started as the different task forces which the previous government had not put up in various districts have been put up by us. Giving more teeth to the particular Act has been done by us”, Sangma said.
He said the government is in the process of coming up with online registration system and has started talking to individuals and companies to help the government in preparing the process.
“We will have a data-base of the people coming to the state and the purpose is to keep a track on the people who are coming in so that there is information. We will know where the persons are staying, the purpose of the visit and when they are going back. It is meant for the safety of the persons coming in and the safety for the state as a whole”, Sangma said.
He said the government plans to make the registration process very simple as the persons can register from their mobile phones and fill maximum 6 fields. Nobody will stand in line to get the registration”, he added.
Earlier, speaking at a function in the city on the identity issues of tribals, he said the regulation on outsiders following the ordinance approved by the Cabinet on Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act is a normal process and asserted that outsiders also need to register in hotels. “All we ask is to register before they come. It is not meant to deter anyone”, he said. “We also look at economic development but protecting our identity and roots are important”, he said.
Sangma added that there is a need to have balance between identity, roots and development.