Meghalaya CM hopes for a positive response from the Centre on ILP demand

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJanuary 10, 2020

SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Friday expressed confidence that the Centre will give a positive response to the demand for Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Meghalaya as he termed it as “untrue” on allegations that Sixth Scheduled will be removed if the state gets ILP.

Sangma told reporters that he had spoken to the union home minister Amit Shah two days back requesting for a meeting with him.

“On the phone he (Shah) told me that as soon as he fixes the date, he will call me and I am hoping that I will be heading from him very soon and may be we will get an appointment next week,” he said.

The chief minister will lead a government delegation to hand over the resolution passed by the state Assembly to urge the Centre to implement ILP in the state and to ensure total exemption from the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.

Asked whether his government is confident that the Centre will consider the demand, Sangma said the state government is very firm in its stand that “we want ILP to be implemented and that is the reason why we passed a resolution. Now, we have to move the Government of India.”

“There are challenges no doubt but we will try to convince the Government of India that this (ILP) is something which we required (as a state). We have been very clear in our argument and our argument is very simple that yes exemption has been given to our state to a large extent but we want full exemption as even a little one-two percent that is left we will not accept that. Exemption is one part of the protection. The other protection we require is from the movement that will take place because of implementation of certain acts and if that movement takes place what is the mechanism in place to protect our state and our people so that is why exemption and the protection are two different things and that is why we need the ILP and that is the reason why we propose to have the MRSSA because that would be a mechanism like the ILP which would come in,” he said.

The chief minister also added, “Having said I want to be clear this mechanism that we are talking about is a mechanism that is going to be in place which is going to be a very systematic mechanism which will ensure that the interest of the people is protected and at the same time ensuring there is minimum inconvenience to the people who actually visited the state including tourists, we are trying to balance both these things. That is the mechanism we are looking at and ILP will help us achieve that mechanism.”

“This is the argument on the basis of which we are going to move to the Government of India. So let us hope as we are also working hard to get entire logic in place and hope the government of India will give us a positive response,” he said.

Asked on the status of the ordinance to amend the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act (MRSSA), 2016 for registration of outsiders visiting the state, Sangma said the ordinance technicaly is not applicable right now because a resolution to implement ILP has been passed by the House.

“We are moving ahead with the ILP in term of the government’s stand. We are going to meet the union home minister in that regard and based on how things move according to that we will take a decision,” he said.

Sangma however informed that there are some concerns that have been expressed by the then governor Tathagata Roy in as far as the ordinance is concerned. “We will discuss this matter again and we will try to resolve those issues .”

To another query, the chief minister said that the MRSSA and ILP are policies meant to achieve similar goal adding “The government will take a decision on how to ensure that the maximum benefit is given to the people of the state.”

Earlier, the Congress MP from Shillong, Vincent H Pala had alleged that Sixth Schedule will be removed from Meghalaya if ILP is implemented.

Reacting to this, Sangma said “That is not true at all.”

He informed that there was a simple observation that certain officials and certain political leaders had in Delhi saying that since we have exemption under Sixth Schedule why would we need exemption under ILP from the CAA.

“So there were some people who mentioned in that case we put the ILP and then we can removed the Sixth schedule but I don’t think that is really at any point in time that this is a matter to be discussed at all as there is no question of Sixth Schedule will be removed as it is a protection and it is a privilege that was given to the people of the state and we are very firm as a government there is no comprised with the Sixth Schedule,” the chief minister stated.