By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The FKJGP has urged the Government to take necessary steps to ensure that name of persons who are not genuine residents of the State are not enrolled in the State’s electoral rolls.
“We have received credible information that large number of non-tribals coming from other states of the country are also enrolling themselves as voters in Meghalaya and this is taking place in certain cosmopolitan areas of Shillong, coal belt region of Jaintia Hills and West Khasi Hills as also in the border areas of Ri-Bhoi district and Garo Hills region,” FKJGP working president Joe Marwein said in a letter submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P Naik on Tuesday.
According to Marwein, these non-tribal persons are not genuine residents of Meghalaya and are mostly migrants who come to the State as labourers and also workers in government and non-governmental sectors.
While maintaining that they are not against enrolment of genuine non-tribals who are residents of the State since their forefathers, he said that the federation totally is opposed to the inclusion of name of non-tribals who are not genuine and who are purely immigrants in the State’s electoral rolls.
“We cannot rule out the possibility of foreign nationals from Bangladesh and Nepal getting their names enrolled in the electoral rolls during such enrolment process,” Marwein said
“If such enrolment is not stopped, there is a danger of the local indigenous tribes being outnumbered or becoming extinct in their own homeland in view of the fact that we are a microscopic population,” FKJGP working president said.