SHILLONG, Feb 5: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Friday said the state government is vigorously pursuing the issues of Inner Line Permit (ILP) and Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security (Amendment) Act, 2019 (MRSSA) with the central government.
“The state government is pursuing MRSSA and ILP issues. We will discuss these further with the Government of India and see how things unfold. Both are complicated issues and require the consent of the Central government,” Sangma said.
His remarks had reference to Governor Satya Pal Malik’s statement that MRSSA is better than ILP and that if he were the CM, he would have pursued it with the Centre.
“We respect the opinion of the honorable Governor as he is a very experienced man and his opinion is something that is important for all of us,” Sangma said.
Stating that MRSSA is a state law, he said, “There were some opinions about it which were shared with the Centre, so the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is in the loop. We need some kind of clearance from the MHA.”
Malik had on Thursday asserted that the implementation of ILP would be counter-productive for the state. He said he has no objection to ILP if it is required to protect the state’s indigenous population. But he felt that the regulation would be redundant if MRSSA is implemented. “Had I been the CM, I would have pleaded with the Centre for MRSSA before thinking about ILP,” he had said.
The demand for ILP in the state is longstanding. It got intensified after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed in Parliament and it became a law, Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA.
