VPP chief accuses MDA govt of deceiving people over ILP issue

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaNovember 19, 2021

Voice of the People’s Party (VPP) chief Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit on Friday accused the National People’s Party-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government of “deceiving” the people of the state by passing a resolution in the Assembly for implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP).

Addressing media persons after the formal launching of the new regional party, Basaiawmoit said, “The government had already deceived the people of the state including the pressure groups because I don’t see that the resolution passed by the Assembly is the right move when it comes to the implementation of ILP. I have been raising this that this is very much misleading.”

The former Nongkrem legislator was reacting to a query on the alleged failure of the state government to aggressively pursue the ILP issue with the central government.

In December 2019, the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly had unanimously passed the resolution urging the Centre for implementation of the ILP following the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which seeks to provide citizenship to immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

When asked, Basaiawmoit said, “If the state government is really sincere about implementing the ILP in the state, it could have done it without passing a resolution in the Assembly.”

The former legislator further alleged that the state government is trying to shift its responsibility to the Centre.

“So passing a resolution in the Assembly is only an attempt to shrug off their responsibility and shift the responsibility to the Centre which is not the right and proper way to do so,” he stated.

Basaiawmoit also maintained that the ILP issue will definitely be one of the top priorities of the new party. “Personally, I have been raising this issue when I was an MLA and we will definitely include this issue in the party’s agenda,” he added.

On the recent joint visit by the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya to Langpih as part of confidence building measures among the border residents, the VPP president said that he is for dialogue to end the long pending boundary disputes between the two states.

“But our stand remains that the state should not lose from these dialogues,” he asserted.