By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The HSPDP on Friday questioned Governor RS Mooshahary for his ‘ignorance’ on the matter relating to the needs and demands of the much needed Inner Line Permit (ILP) while referring to the word ‘insecurity’ mentioned by the governor recently at the inauguration of the CALM festival in Shillong.
Pin-pointing Mooshahary’s statement on a strong demand for ILP because people feel a sense of “Insecurity”, the HSPDP questioned the governor’s understanding of the word “Insecurity” with regard to ILP.
“The Governor has to learn the deeper meaning of ‘Insecurity’ so that he would be able to differentiate and correlate the word properly”, Joint Secretary-Cum-Spokesperson HSPDP G Nonglong said in a statement issued here on Friday.
While stating that the demand of ILP is not because “people feel insecure” but because “people wish to be protected and identified”, Nonglong said that it is about protection rather than insecurity and hence, ILP in the state is considered a relevant demand as one of the measures to check Influx.
While calling upon the need to uplift the indigenous tribals of the state and also to protect their ethnic purity, laws must be properly implemented.
The HSPDP Spokesperson said “Some more laws need to be enacted which are necessary for the overall upliftment, growth, development and protection of the people of the state keeping in view the ‘Identity’.”
Meanwhile, the party also slammed Forest and Environment Minister Prestone Tynsong for blaming the present Land Holding system of being a bottleneck for multifarious developmental projects to take off in the state. Terming Tynsong as an ‘agent of non-tribals’, the HSPDP said this is a myopic and immature statement from a person of his stature while alleging that there is something behind this that made Tynsong spoke in such a manner.
The forest minister was making the statement in the recent valedictory function of Wildlife Week Celebrations at the All Saints Cathedral Hall where he puts the onus on the present Land tenure system in the state for delays and failures in implementation of different projects.
“Changing the present Land Ownership system and allowing anybody to buy, sell, acquire and inherit any land will directly help the non-tribals to shift gear with us in terms of ownership”, Nonglong said while demanding a clarification from Tynsong on this matter.
The HSPDP expressed the need to strengthen the Land Ownership system and to pluck the loopholes present in the existing Meghalaya Land Transfer Act so that “Only the Indigenous Tribals of the State should be able to sell, buy, acquire and inherit any land among themselves which will ensure ownership continuity for generation to come”, he added.