NESO, KSU call on BJP chief

SHILLONG: The NESO and KSU in a joint meeting here on Wednesday urged BJP president Amit Shah to exempt Meghalaya from the purview of the Indo-Nepal Treaty besides calling for the need to have a full proof mechanism in place to tackle the influx of illegal immigrants into the State.
“We request you to initiate immediate steps to exempt the State from the Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty, 1950 in order to protect the indigenous people from being overwhelmed by the Nepalese immigrants, thereby disturbing the social, political economic and demography of the State,” NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa and KSU president Daniel Khyriem stated in a joint representation submitted to the BJP president.
While calling upon the need to have a full proof mechanism to tackle the issue of influx of illegal immigrants, both Jyrwa and Khyriem said that the people of the State are constantly overwhelmed by these foreigners-socially, economically, politically- and that this could result in a disastrous demographic imbalance.
“The presence of large number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and their continuous infiltration have instilled a sense of insecurity  in the minds of the indigenous people. It is high time that the Union Government takes effective and immediate measures to protect the indigenous people,” the two leaders said.
The student leaders suggested that stringent measures should be adopted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that the ‘illegal immigrants’ are not able to enroll themselves to the State electoral list easily. They also stressed on the need to empower traditional bodies to verify the antecedents of the applicants with dubious documents and called for inclusion of traditional heads in the guidelines of the Election Commission.
They also demanded the immediate need for re-introduction of the Eastern Bengal Frontier Regulation Act, 1873 or Inner Line Permit through legislation of Parliament to enable State machineries to detect and deport illegal immigrants effectively.
The two leaders also impressed the need to increase the reservation of medical seats for the students of the State at NEIGRIHMS.