SHILLONG, July 2: The Hill State Peoples’ Democratic Party (HSPDP) is hopeful that Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the State scheduled for this month will pave way for implementation of the Inner Line permit system in Meghalaya.
“We expect him to pay heed to our demands and hopefully he will respond positively. I feel he will be come with a purpose in mind,” HSPDP chief KP Pangniang said on Friday.
Besides the ILP demand, the HSPDP will also push for inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and amendment of a certain clause in the Sixth Schedule to replace the word “President” with the word “Governor”.
He said that the amendment is needed to give the indigenous people enough power to legislate on their land rights. “As of today, the Meghalaya government has no power to legislate on the land holding system,” Pangniang added.
Talking about the demand for ILP, he said that since the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly had passed a resolution on the issue, all political parties in the state are on the same page as far as this demand is concerned.
“We also seek the permission of the state government to meet the Union Home Minister and submit our petition to him,” he added.
