SHILLONG: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, has asserted that the intention behind mooting the idea of issuing work permit to Bangladeshi nationals was to develop a strong mechanism in the long run to protect the interest of the state for economic benefits with Bangladesh and at the same time protecting the people and the land of the state.
Speaking to media persons after arriving from New Delhi here on Wednesday, Conrad Sangma said that in his meeting with the External Affairs Minister,Sushma Swaraj, they discussed about ‘Act South’ policy under which Meghalaya can get huge economic benefits but the biggest challenge is illegal immigration.
“We discussed how do we get maximum benefits economically and at the same time protect the people and the land,” Sangma told reporters.
Sangma maintained that the idea of issuing work permits to Bangladeshi citizens came up while discussing on how to evolve a system like USA, Dubai, UK and other countries where people from the India can go and work but they cannot vote and cannot become the citizen of that country
“It serves dual purpose as people who are working in those countries get a living and people of that country gets the required service and they are happy as nationals from other countries don’t become their citizens,” he told reporters.
According to Sangma, the idea of issuing work permits to Bangladeshi national is worth looking though more detailed discussions will take place on the matter with the other Chief Ministers of the North Eastern state.
Clarifying his stand, the Chief Minister said that he has not given any proposal in this regard and the matter will be discussed further and based on the pros and cons, a decision will be taken into the matter.
He also stated that the State Government had proposed a road linkage diagonally from Kolkata to Guwahati by avoiding the chicken neck and reducing the duration from 1500 kilometers to 700 kilometers which would have huge economic benefits for the North East region besides requests were also made to open more border haats along the Indo-Bangla border in the state.
