SHILLONG: As the winter session of Parliament began on Monday, the fear of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill loomed large even as Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong was hopeful that the CAB will not be reintroduced in Parliament until Centre holds discussions on the matter with the various stakeholders and political parties.
Tynsong said that he and Chief Minister Conrad Sangma only few days ago, met the Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi and have stressed on the need to hold talks with various political parties and stakeholders of the state before putting the bill on the table.
He said that since Shah has assured to visit the state and do so, it is unlikely that the bill would be tabled before that.
Asked whether the government has softened its stand on the bill, Tynsong said that the government’s opposition to the bill stands and they will wait and decide the road ahead after the talks between the Union home minister and various stakeholders are held.
Meanwhile, reacting to the Congress’ suggestion to conduct an all party meet to discuss the issue so that there is a clear indicator whether or not the state government will protest the implementation of CAB, the Deputy Chief Minister said that they have already called an all party meeting and their stand stays the same towards the bill.
He, however, mentioned that the state government will inform all political parties to come and discuss on the matter with Union Home Minister Amit Shah as and when he visits.
Reacting to yet another statement of the Opposition that the Meghalaya Residents Act is just an ordinance which is yet to be passed and it cannot be taken for granted that it will attend to the fall out of the CAB, Tynsong said that the ordinance is already a law which will have the same effect as an Act and will be regularised in next session of the Assembly.
