SHILLONG, Jan 21: The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisation (CoMSO) staged a demonstration on Thursday at Malki ground over the unresolved issues in the state on the occasion of the 49th statehood of Meghalaya.
“We mourn because government after government at the centre and the state has not been able to settle the issue,” CoMSO chairman Robertjune Kharjahrin told reporters.
He lamented the state’s inability to settle the international and inter-state boundary, Inner-Line Permit (ILP) and other issues besides ensuring development, employment and the inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Kharjahrin said the objective of the hill state movement and ILP movement was to protect the indigenous people in their own land and overall development of the people.
“We will flag ILP, inclusion of languages in the Eighth Schedule and the long-pending border dispute if our appointment with Union Home Minister Amit Shah is confirmed,” he said. He added that CoMSO saw no justification in delaying the implementation of ILP when the hill state movement had the same objective of protecting the indigenous people.
Kharjahrin said CoMSO does not want the ILP issue to be politicised.
“We don’t want any politics over ILP since a resolution on it was passed unanimously. It is the duty of the legislators to go to Delhi to prove that Meghalaya is serious about ILP,” he said.
The district administration had earlier in the day stopped a protest march by Hynniewtrep National Youth Movement to the State Central Library where the Meghalaya Day celebration was held. The organisation was protesting the delay of successive governments in resolving the boundary row with Assam.