Visitors to State may face ILP like restrictions

SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Rules notified by the state government on Monday are on the lines of the inner permit line and will restrict free entry of visitors and affect tourist flow.
As per the rules, each facilitation centre will have an officer in-charge who will be designated by the District Task Force and conferred with the powers of an executive magistrate by the government.
The officer in-charge will be assisted by officers of the Police, the Tourism and other departments as the District Task Force may deem necessary.
“Every person intending to transit through the entry point shall fill up an application in Form IV appended to the Rule and submit the same along with proof of identity as mentioned in sub-rule (3) of the Rule to the officer in-charge of the facilitation centre,” the notification said.
However, every person under the sub-rule will not mean a person “who has been residing permanently in Meghalaya and includes his or her relative or members of family as defined under clause (i) of Section 2 of the Act.
The rule also exempts any person who is employed under the State Government or the Union Government as the case may be either on deputation or transfer and either temporarily or contractually and includes his or her relatives or members of family as defined under clause (i) of Section 2 of the Act. It will also exempt a person and his or her relatives employed under a board, corporation, society or organisation partly or wholly owned by the State Government or the Union Government.
The visitor has to submit as proof of identity either passport, Electoral Photo Identity Card, Driving License or Identity Card issued by central or state government or educational institution or any other document that would facilitate the establishment of identity of a person (e.g. PAN card, ration card, professional registration certificate, among others).
The Form IV to be filled up by a person who enters the state has to give his or her name and names of accompanying persons, permanent address, identity card numbers, date of arrival, date of departure, details of travel by bus, car, two-wheeler, train, air and numbers of vehicles, train and flight, address during stay, address of referred person in Meghalaya and contact numbers. One who enters the state should also mention the purpose of his visit.
The visitor also has to collect an acknowledgement receipt to be returned to the facilitation centre concerned at the time of going out of the state.