SHILLONG, Dec 15: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong has allayed the fears that genuine residents about facing harassment at the entry-exit gate. He told reporters here today that the genuine residents of the state should not worry at all about the new system being put in place from December 21.
“Our permanent residents, be it tribal or non-tribal, should not panic at all,” he said categorically.
When asked about the process of going and coming back to the state for genuine residents, Tynsong said that an EPIC or a Permanent Residential Certificate (PRC) issued by the respective deputy commissioners is good enough for genuine residents to produce at the entry-exit gate.
As far as the tourists are concerned, Tynsong said they would have to provide details like their address and their place of stay, EPIC and other details about their destination and duration of the stay in the state.
The proposed entry-exit point would have 3-4 counters and it will have a designated counter for COVID-19, one for the tourists to be manned by the Tourism department and even the Ri Bhoi district administration will have one for the registration of people.
When asked about the jibe of the Opposition Congress that the proposed infrastructure is merely a COVID-19 check gate and not an entry-exit point per se, Tynsong expressed optimism that the Governor would soon give his assent to the Meghalaya Residents’ Safety and Security (Amendment) Act, 2019 and added that the proposed entry-exit point would serve a variety of purpose, be it COVID-19 or tourism.
“By setting up the entry-exit point, we don’t mean to discourage people from coming to Meghalaya, rather we want to encourage people to come here for business investment or tourism purposes,” he said.
When asked about the demands of the pressure groups to make other entry and points in the state functional, he said that land has been acquired in some place and the entry-exit point at Bajengdoba and Ratacherra is likely to be constructed by 2021 or 2022.
It may be recalled that the idea of setting up entry-exit point in the state was conceived way back in 2014-15 when the state was witnessing aggressive pro-ILP agitation.