SHILLONG, FEB 19: Former chief minister Mukul Sangma on Monday asked the MDA government to stop playing politics with the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act (MRSSA).
Sangma said the MRSSA is one of the best laws that exist in the world to deal with influx and illegal immigration. It was passed unanimously by the State Assembly with the complete involvement of stakeholders in the past.
“Many nations including the United States of America, United Kingdom are trying to find out on how to deal with illegal immigration because they don’t have a law like this. I would like to urge upon all including the government of the day to give due importance to this piece of important legislation enacted for the interest of the state. Let us not play politics on this.”
The former CM alleged that the Act was put in cold storage from 2018 onwards because we decided to play politics with this Act at the cost of the interest of the people.
“Therefore, please relook at this. Let us look at the intent which is an offshoot of the collective intent of the people, not the intent of the government of that time. It was the collective intention of the people. Therefore, please take cognizance of the whole enactment of this law in the context of our given limited space for legislation of this august house. I am the author of this act along with the wisdom that has been contributed from all the stakeholders. Therefore, let us not belittle this collective endeavour that has taken enough time for everyone.”
The former CM warned the state that corruption is more crippling and deadlier than terrorism that would only lead to a disastrous future.
On illegal coal mining and transportation, he asked whether the state government has the courage to institute an independent inquiry and said irregularity of this scale cannot happen without the knowledge of the people in power.
“I have always tried to draw the attention of the government to this issue of irregularity which inflicts so much irreversible economic injury on the state. Any country that has gone to the dogs is because of corruption, because of various other illegal activities like allowing a cartel of illegal activities to operate including drugs,” Sangma said.
Stating that the free movement of drugs is making youngsters victims of drug menace, he said, “It is necessary for the government including GOI and other nations as it is not just a problem confined to Meghalaya. Because of that, there is every reason to believe and everyone knows that it is a cross border problem that we are facing. Therefore, let us have some serious focus on these issues.”