SHILLONG: The amended version of the Meghalaya Residents’ Safety and Security Act, 2016 is all set to take its effect after the State Cabinet on Friday approved the amendments.
Talking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said that the amendment of the existing Act in the form of an ordinance would come into force immediately and the ordinance will be regularised in the next Assembly session,” Tynsong said.
Stating that the focal point of MRRSA, 2016 was about the tenants where instructions were issued to all the landlords to register the tenants, Tynsong added that now with this new Bill, everyone who intends to visit the State would have to register themselves,” Deputy Chief Minister.
Tynsong also clarified that the non-tribal who are permanent residents of the State would not come under the purview of the new Amended Act.
“The permanent residents of Meghalaya whether they are tribal or non-tribals need not worry. This Act is meant for people who intends to visit the State in the form of tourist, labourers, business transactions and other purposes. They will have to comply with certain guidelines under the new Act,” Deputy Chief Minister said.
When asked about the penalty against people who violates the Act, he said that any person who willfully fails to furnish their information or provide false information as required as per the Act will be liable to be punished under Section 176 or 177 of the IPC, 1860.
To the question on the opposition of the Congress to the proposed amendment, he said that he was not very sure why the Congress were opposing to this move of the State Government.
When asked about the different of the new Act with the ILP, Tyngsong said that he couldn’t say anything on the ILP.
He said that he failed to understand as why the NGOs were again mentioning about the ILP even as he added that the NGOs wanted the existing Act with some more teeth and hence with this objective, Government brought the amendment which is inclusive.
“We have included everybody and not only tenants in this amended Act,” Tynsong said
Deputy Chief Minister further said that the Government would be coming up with the rules to make sure that the whole process of registration should not take a long time.
“The exercise for registration will be done online. We are going to entrust this job to the District Task Force. The Commissioners and SPs need to be more proactive once instructions are given to their respective areas,” Tynsong said.
When asked about the documents which the people who are visiting the State requires to submit, he said that the Government would first draft the rules of the Act.
“We will be redrafting the rules and make sure that the rules were very simple and procedure needs to be shortened,” he said
Replying to a query, Tynsong said that the Central government employees were exempted from the purview of the Act
“We have one provision under Section 4 (a) which states any person who is not a resident of Meghalaya and intends to stay for more than 24 hours in the State of Meghalaya should furnish information in the manner prescribed under the rules. Then the proviso stated states the above provisions should not apply to person belonging to the Central Government employees, State Government or local authorities,” Deputy Chief Minister said.
Tynsong said that they also examining to enhance the manpower of the District Task Force (DTF).