SHILLONG, Dec 5: Leader of the opposition Congress, Mukul Sangma is of the view that the Meghalaya Residents’ Safety and Security Act (MRSSA) is one of the best laws ever enacted in the history of the State and the country which is capable of dealing with the concern in relation to the issue of influx and illegal immigrants including the safety and security of the citizen of the state.
“MRSSA still remains the most effective law which has been enacted in the history of Meghalaya and this great nation, and I am proud of that Act,” said the leader of the opposition.
Responding to the statement of the NPP leader and Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong who had questioned the stand of the opposition Congress on the demand for implementation of the ILP in the State after Congress MLA from North Karimganj, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha met Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and requested him to consider not implementing ILP in the State, the leader of the opposition said, “The truth is there are different people who have different opinion in respect of ILP even within or outside the party and obviously irrespective of which party they belong to when they are from others states other than Meghalaya they will look at this issue from other perspective”.
“But for us the people of Meghalaya we say that the things have changed because of the issues related to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and that therefore there is a need for a law that will obviously provide some kind of insulation, protection keeping in mind the challenges associated with ramifications in respect of demography and this is precisely the reason why ultimately everybody said that things have changed,” he added.
He pointed out that prior to CAA, everybody had accepted in the Assembly to adopt a new strategy with a mandate of legislation and the culmination of which is the Meghalaya Resident Safety and Security Act (MRSSA), the leader of the opposition said, “It was not an Act which was adopted by a single party. It was a culmination of a collective endeavour exercise involving all stakeholders including civil society organisations”.
Stressing that it is a culmination of long drawn engagement along with exhaustive due diligence which resulted in enactment of law, Dr Sangma said, “MRSSA is one of the best law which is capable of dealing with the concern in relation to the issue of influx and illegal immigrants including the safety and security of the citizen of the state”.
Recalling that he was part and parcel of this whole exercise with stakeholders and civil society organisations, the leader of the opposition said that it was not something which was bulldozed upon anybody. “It was seen as an alternative but much more effective law to deal with all the issues concerning the challenges associated with influx which has a ramification on the demography of the state including illegal immigration and safety and security of the citizens,” he added.