The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) on Thursday demanded the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma to clarify the reason for the Centre to delay implementation of the inner line permit (ILP) in Meghalaya.
Speaking to reporters, HYC president Robertjune Kharjahrin said, “We are surprised by the outcome of the meeting. Such meetings have taken place several times but there is no concrete outcome yet. The reply they always give is that the MHA is examining (the ILP resolution), the home minister is examining it and now the Prime Minister is examining it.”
“Therefore, we would like to respectfully ask the chief minister to give us more clarification on this matter as to what kind of examination, how much time they would still need to examine and what are the areas of concern they want to examine in respect of the ILP so that we may perhaps give suggestion,” Kharjahrin said.
He said, “if the Centre says that it involve legal issue, now four States have already implemented ILP. So many cases have already been challenged before the various High Courts and Supreme Court on ILP and the courts have always upheld the ILP. So there is no issue whatsoever on legal aspect, it is very clear that it can be done.”
Kharjahrin said, “We have already given our opinion that with the help of technology this has been taken care of. Now, if we go to Arunachal Pradesh we don’t need to stand in a queue, we can apply e-ILP and it take only two minutes to fill up the form and upload the necessary documents. Therefore, I don’t think this will affect tourism.”
He further stated on the concern that Meghalaya is a transit state, the HYC had already given its suggestion before the union home minister that there is no problem to issue a transit pass.
“How will transit passengers affect our rights on economic and politics, it will not I think a passenger who travel six hours will not have time to buy land in our state,” he said.