Govt rules out ILP, vows to give teeth to Safety Act

SHILLONG: The state government has ruled out implementation of inner line permit (ILP) while asserting that the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act, 2016, will be amended to suit the interest of the local people and this will be a tool more than ILP.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong told reporters that the points proposed by the Confederation of Hynniewtrep Social Organisations (CoHSO) will be incorporated.
The three proposals of CoHSO are that legal provision should be in place to bar an Indian or a foreigner from entering the state without valid permission, penalty for persons when they enter the state without valid permission and validity period of not more than 179 days of the permission granted.
Referring to the bill passed by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), he said, “How can ILP be implemented only in KHADC which is next to impossible because state and center will have to be taken in to confidence.”
“There is fresh demand for ILP because of the issues related to CAB,” Tynsong said, adding that MDA has already passed a resolution rejecting CAB when a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) came to Shillong.
“Pressure groups and leaders met JPC and now the government is planning to amend the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act, 2016. Political Department is working on to strengthen the act and it will be more than ILP since there will be stringent provisions to tackle influx on the ground,” Tynsong said.
He added that the response from Home Minister Rajnath Singh is positive regarding CAB.
“Don’t worry sentiments of the people of the Northeast will be respected,” was the message communicated by Singh, according to Singh.
CoHSO had written to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma demanding “immediate implementation” of inner line permit and NRC in Meghalaya.
In the letter dated February 5, CoHSO chairman Robert June Kharjahrin said it was unanimously resolved at the general convention of Hynniewtrep people on January 31 to oppose the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
“CoHSO strongly demand from the government to immediately take necessary steps to implement the inner line permit system and NRC in the whole state for the protection and safeguard of the rights and privileges of the indigenous people of the state,” said Kharjahrin, who is also the president of Hynniewtrep Youth Council.
Meanwhile, Tynsong said the three bills of the KHADC – Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) Amendment Bill, 2018, Clan Bill and KHAD (Inner Line as adapted from the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873) Regulation Bill, 2018 – are being examined by the Law Department.