SHILLONG: Government will be ready with the new Tenancy Bill, an alternate to the Inner Line Permit, within a week’s time.
An official source said on Tuesday that the first draft of the proposed Bill was examined by senior government officials of the concerned departments on Tuesday.
The meeting chaired by Chief Secretary WMS Pariat examined the first draft of the Bill and the members felt that the draft needed some fine-tuning.
“There will be a few more meetings and we hope to complete the exercise of finalizing the Bill within a week’s time,” an official said.
The Bill among others things, aims at verifying the antecedents of people who stay in rented accommodations, which Government considers as an effective mechanism to check influx of illegal migrants.
Once the Bill is ready, Government will invite comments and suggestions from the people of the State so that they could be incorporated, the official added.
‘Take existing laws into consideration’
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Grand Council of Chiefs of Meghalaya John F Kharshiing has said Government should take into consideration all the existing acts while preparing the new Tendency Bill.
In a letter to Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma on Tuesday, he said there were as many as 52 acts enacted by both the State Government (29) and the autonomous district councils (23) which have direct or indirect impact on regulation of influx into the State.
Kharshiing said government needs to urgently review the existing Laws (Acts, Rules and Regulation) which can be further strengthened with effective penalties and enforceable monitoring mechanism to tackle influx.
“It is relevant to also ensure that there is no overlapping of subjects between the various levels of authority namely the State Government, Autonomous District Councils and the traditional institutions,” Kharshiing stated.
A copy of the letter had been forwarded to the Chairman of the Meghalaya State Planning Board SC Marak, Chief Adviser to the Government of Meghalaya DD Lapang and the Cabinet ministers for reference.