Shillong, Dec 20: The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organization (CoMSO), an umbrella organization of pro-ILP groups in the state, has welcomed the adoption of the resolution by the state assembly.
“We are happy that the Assembly has done its job, we have only reached the halfway mark. We expect the chief minister to lead from the front and ensure Centre give its necessary nod to the ILP resolution,” CoMSO chairman Robertjune Kharjahrin told reporters on Friday.
He said the confederation would immediately write to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to notify the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) 1873 in Meghalaya. The Members of Parliament will be also asked to follow up the matter.
“The resolution is a strong message of the 60 MLAs and the people of the state that we want ILP in Meghalaya,†he said while also thanking all the NGOs for their consistent demand for ILP.
Kharjahrin, also president of the Hynñiewtrep Youth Council (HYC), however maintained that the protests to ensure total exemption of the state from the purview of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 will continue.
Stating that ILP is only one of the solutions to protect the indigenous communities, the chairman said the CoMSO will further pressurize for the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“Since we are yet to know how many illegal immigrants are there in the state, that is why we are also stressing that NRC should be implemented in Meghalaya based on 1971 as the cut off year and adopt the 3D’s which means detect, delete and deport them,†he said.
He also suggested the need to introduce the system of voting in their place of origin in order to protect the political rights of the indigenous people.
“The existing land transfer act and trading by non-tribal regulation also need to be further strengthened since ILP is only to regulate entry of outsiders but will not help to protect land and economic interests of the people,†Kharjahrin said.
He informed that the CoMSO had suggested the need to declare entire Meghalaya as a tribal state in the proposed amendment of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
“We will also aggressively pursue on the need to amend the Constitution (Schedule Tribe) Order, 1950 for deletion of the other tribes which are not indigenous to Meghalaya from its ST list,†Kharjahrin stated.
