SHILLONG: Senior UDP leader Bindo Mathew Lanong has urged Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma to scrap the proposed Meghalaya Landlords and Tenants Verification Bill, 2013.
“The Government should immediately scrap the proposed bill since majority of the population has rejected it and look for other options to deal with the issue of influx,” Lanong said here on Wednesday.
Emphasizing on the need to break the ongoing impasse, the senior UDP leader said that if this standoff continues it would escalate the ongoing tension and lead to a situation which would cause greater harm to the growth and development and also to the economy of the State.
“The Government can put the balls in the court of the pressure groups. It is the duty of the Government of the day to ‘break the ice’ by facilitating dialogue with the pressure groups,” Lanong said.
Suggestions some options available with the Government, Lanong reminded that besides recommending implementation of the ILP, the High Level Committee on Influx, of which he was the Chairman, had also mentioned about the ID card system as proposed by an earlier working group led by former Minister Late TH Rangad in 2001.
“The working group had proposed the ID card system. Two former IAS officers – Toki Blah and GP Wahlang – who were members of the HLC on Influx, had also endorsed the ID card system,” Lanong said, while pointing out that the working group had mentioned about the effectiveness of the ILP even though it had not recommended the same on technical grounds.Lanong observed that the ID card, though cumbersome, provides an option to the Government to break the deadlock by suggesting it as an alternative to the ILP and asking the agitating NGOs to have a rethink on the same.
“We have also mentioned in the committee report of the HLC about the modified ILP system for the Meghalaya case. The Government along with the NGOs can work out a modified ILP,” Lanong said, while also suggesting that the Government can propose any other system or mechanism which may mutually be acceptable to both the parties.
He, however, said that it was wrong to say that the ILP system is in the Union List.
Referring to Article 19(1) of the Constitution of India, Lanong said, “Article 19 (Clause 5) says ‘nothing in Article 19 (1) sub-clauses (d) and (e) shall affect the operation of any existing law, in so far as it imposes or prevent the State from making any law, imposing reasonable restrictions on the exercise of any of the rights conferred by the said sub-clauses, either in the interests of the general public or for the protection of the interests of any Scheduled Tribe.”
He said that Clause 5 of Article 19 has, therefore, removed any misgiving over the infringement of the two rights (d) and (e) of any citizen of India, whenever the government wishes to impose reasonable restrictions for protection of the scheduled tribes, it could be the ILP Law or the like.
“The proposal to implement the ILP is send to the Centre as a formality only,” Lanong added.
