GUWAHATI: The influential Khasi Students’ Union has put the ball on the Meghalaya government’s court saying that it has to take the civil society into confidence in regard to putting in place a “comprehensive and an effective” mechanism to check influx of illegal immigrants before allowing work on the railway projects.
“We are not against development but the Meghalaya government has to take the civil society into confidence that there would be no influx of illegal immigrants into the state after trains are allowed to operate in the state,” Ferdynald K. Kharkamni, the president of KSU’s North Khasi Hills unit told The Shillong Times on Wednesday.
Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway has so far completed only 50 per cent on the 21.50km Tetelia-Byrnihat (broad-gauge) project, of which 19.2km track falls in Assam and 2.3km in Meghalaya. The anticipated cost of the project is Rs 780crore.
A construction camp at Ronghona village near Byrnihat was attacked by miscreants on May 26 last year with construction equipment set ablaze while several persons including policemen and workers were injured. At least 13 KSU activists were arrested by police for protesting against work by NFR.
“We have said this before and we reiterate that entry and exit points have to be set up near the border with infrastructure such as facilitation centres in place so that entry and exit of various categories of people, be they tourists, government servants or labourers, takes place in a proper manner,” Kharkamni said.
The KSU leader also said the Meghalaya Residential Safety and Security Act 2016 which was approved by the Cabinet to regulate entry of people into the state has to be implemented in letter and spirit.
“Till date we do not see the Act being implemented on the ground. So, our stand is that unless things take shape on the ground and there is a mechanism with strong teeth to curb influx, the NFR will not be allowed to proceed with their project,” he said.
Kharkamni also said the union was in favour of operation of goods trains only to ply on the track if at all the demands were met by the government.
“We cannot allow passenger trains as there will be a greater chance of influx,” he added.
The KSU (North Khasi Hills) president further said that they would stick to their demand of implementation of inner line permit.
The 108.4km Byrnihat-Shillong project is also wedged because of land acquisition issues.
Mission 2020
As of now, the Mission 2020 (connection of all the Northeast states) implementation of the railways appears to be a race against time, given the issues that are currently stalling work on the projects.
NFR Railway authorities however told The Shillong Times that the matter is being pursued with the state government and that things should be back on track.
“As of now, the problem is only on the Meghalaya portion as far as the Tetelia-Byrnihat track is concerned. The survey has been almost completed for the Byrnihat-Shillong project (anticipated cost Rs 6000crore) but land acquisition has been held up for non-issuance of no-objection certificate by KHADC,” an official at the NFR headquarters here said.
In 2016-17, NFR had deposited an amount of Rs 209 crore with the Ri Bhoi district administration for land compensation.
“But till date, no land has been handed over to NFR. We are awaiting action from the Meghalaya government,” he said.