SHILLONG: As the Central Government has not responded positively towards the demand of the Meghalaya Government to implement Inner Line Permit (ILP), the Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisation (CoMSO) has now decided to take scholars, academicians and traditional institutions on board to start a mass movement in the state until the demand is met.
A day after the Meghalaya Government delegation met Union Home Minister, the CoMSO on Friday held its emergent meeting where it expressed its displeasure over the outcome of the meeting.
CoMSO Secretary, Roy Kupar Synrem after the meeting said, “ We are not happy with the outcome of the meeting as there was no positive response from the Centre about implementing ILP in the state.”
Accusing the Centre of dilly-dallying the whole issue, the CoMSO said that the fight for implementing ILP would be a long one and hence they wanted to call academicians and traditional institutions on board for starting a mass movement in the state.
The CoMSO first of all will have consultations with the stakeholders following which they will frame the guidelines for the movement, adding the mass movement will be specifically for the ILP.
Reacting to a query, he said that their movement will be sustained and it would not be like 2013 agitations which took place mere for 1-2 years
When asked if the group would also follow up on the long pending issue of Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act (MRSSA), he said that when the group held discussions with Meghalaya Government, they were made to understand that Union Government was not keen to implement ILP any of the North Eastern states and in fact it wants to withdraw ILP form the state where has been already enforced
“But we have seen that ILP was approved for Manipur and based on that we made our demand and now we are not concerned with MRSSA,” he said.
It may be mentioned that the ruling MDA delegation led by Chief Minister Conrad Sangma met Union Home Minister Amit Shah after waiting for three days amid uncertainties, but there was no commitment on granting Inner Line Permit for Meghalaya although he assured to protect all tribal rights.
The union home minister however said that the Government was examining the resolution passed by the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly for the implementation of Inner Line Permit in the State.