SHILLONG/TURA: The demand for implementation of entry and exit points to deter influx of outsiders into the state got louder in Shillong and Tura on Thursday with members of various organisations staging sit-in demonstrations.
Thirteen pro-ILP groups in the city threatened to resort to “different tactics” if the state government delayed setting up entry-exit points.
The groups staged a protest at Additional Secretariat parking lot on Thursday.
President of Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) Lambok Marngar said, “The previous government identified 18 areas in Khasi Hills and 23 places in Garo Hills. We are disappointed with the performance of the present government and the snail’s pace of setting up the entry and exit points.”
Marngar recalled that the state government did not settle for inner line permit and after discussions with the organisations agreed to comprehensive mechanisms like setting up entry and exit points to check influx.
He said none of the gates was in place yet. “We had sent a letter to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma for a review meeting and sit face-to-face to get a report on the progress of the entry/exit point. However, there was no response.”
Pointing to the government’s directive to NGOs against taking the law in their hands when the KSU had set up infiltration check gates, Marngar said, “If the state government keeps on lingering with the setting up of entry/exit point, then the government should empower the organisations and allow us to set up the gates from now on. We have been waiting for four years, how long will we wait?”
“The state government should talk less and start with the work. In Ri Bhoi, the place is already there and the residents are willing to give away land. What is the problem of the state government to set up the entry/exit point,” he asked.
He added that the organisations’ demand for ILP still stands.
“None of the legislators took up the matter of discussing ILP in the Assembly although when they campaigned for election, they said the ILP was the most powerful weapon,” Marngar said.
Meanwhile, FKJGP president Wellbirth Rani said the protest was to remind the government of the comprehensive mechanism on the recent issue of Them Iew Mawlong and border issue.
“With regard to comprehensive meeting, we are very clear that we want a review meeting to know the progress of the entry/exit point,” Rani said.
He said in the review meeting, the organisations would take the issue of border disputes and Them Iew Mawlong. “We cannot wait for the delay tactics of the state government,” he added.
In Tura, organisations like the GSU, FKJGP, AYWO and ADE along with their supporters sat near the entrance of the Deputy Commissioner’s Office and while holding placards shouted slogans.
In 2015, the then Mukul Sangma-led government had first proposed setting up of entry and exit points to check influx when 13 organisations of the state had pressed for ILP.
Following the proposal, the organisations who partly accepted the proposal without abandoning the ILP demand had served countless memoranda on various occasions to the then government.
While there had been several assurances, the move to actually implement the proposal never materialised compelling the organisations to turn their attention to the new MDA government.
During Thursday’s sit-in demonstration, there was no submission of memorandum in Tura.
“We are fed up of submitting the same memorandum so many times. We have already submitted countless memoranda to the previous government. I just hope the new government hears our cries and fulfils our demands,” GSU president Tengsak G Momin said.
When asked on the next course of action on the issue, the GSU leader said that it was still undecided and the same would be notified later.
