By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: After inordinate delay the State Government has finally kick-started the process to introduce work permit system for outside labourers and immigrants by issuing a notification.
The official notification was issued last week where the Deputy Commissioners of the seven districts in the state have been directed to assign a district magistrate, a labour inspector and other ministerial staff to start the exercise.
The government’s initial exercise is expected to get the backing of the NGOs who have been demanding the introduction of the work permit in the State.
Happy with the Government’s move, KSU leader Hamlet Dohling on Tuesday said, “The work permit system will not totally stop infiltration from across the border, but it will to a large extent curb influx of illegal immigrants.”
The KSU and other organisations earlier had threatened to agitate if the government did not implement the work permit system by October.
Three years back, the Meghalaya cabinet had approved the amendment to the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Regulation Act, 1979 (amended in 1985), to give more powers to the law-enforcing agencies to check influx and regulate the employment of migrants in the State.
