SHILLONG, Jan 16: The Hynniewtrep Achik National Movement (HANM) has re-submitted a memorandum pleading with President Droupadi Murmu to step in and assist with the implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP), the addition of the Khasi and Garo languages to the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, and the creation of a boundary commission to settle the interstate border dispute between Assam and Meghalaya.
In a memo re-submitted to the President on Monday, HANM president, Lamphrang Kharbani pointed out that the Government of India has implemented the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act, 1873 in the Northeastern states of Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram, and Meghalaya deserves the same.
In its re-submission, the HANM implored the President to address the matters that are crucial to protecting Meghalaya’s tribal communities.
According to Kharbani, the central government ought to execute the aforementioned Act in Meghalaya as well, in order to safeguard the state’s tribal communities, given that it has addressed the concerns of the citizens of the other Northeastern states.
The HANM further stated that the Khasi and Garo communities are tribal people living in the Northeastern state of Meghalaya and speak and write in their own language in educational institutions up to the PhD level at central universities. The organisation backed the State Assembly’s resolution to safeguard both languages, and urged the central government to add the Khasi and Garo languages to the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The organisation, while praising the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya for their efforts to settle the border dispute, said, “…the memorandum of understanding was signed on March 29, 2022 (in presence of) Union Home Minister Amit Shah. You are well aware that signing an MoU between the chief ministers of the two states will have no effect until the Government of India comes into picture since the Union only has the right to alter the boundary of any state.
