UDP working President Paul Lyngdoh on Monday said Inner Line Permit (ILP) is no longer an issue to be discussed and debated during the election. While downplaying political parties’ effort to once again raise a crucial ILP issue during the election, Lyngdoh said the next logical step is to take that resolution which was passed in the Assembly in 2019 forward .
“ILP has already been endorsed by the State Assembly and the resolution has been forwarded to the Union Government of India and Parliament. So ILP is no longer an issue to be discussed and debated, it is only to be implemented,” the UDP working president said.
“That resolution has gone to the Central Government and the parliament, so the next logical step is to take that resolution forward,” he added while maintaining that it is only at the implementation stage.
The party is still in the drafting stage of manifesto.
Demand for the implementation of Inner line Permit in the state is not new; this demand grew stronger after the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act. A long-pending demand of the pressure groups and the political parties of Meghalaya, however, the slogan- ‘No ILP, No Rest’ reverberates across the state, but it could not change the mind of Delhi over the issue.
The Meghalaya Legislative Assembly in December 2019 adopted a resolution for implementing ILP, which will impose restrictions on the entry of ‘outsiders’ in the hill state. The Centre is ‘mum’ over the issue and the delay in ILP implementation has caused resentment and hurt the pressure groups and the political parties.
Social organisations slammed the Centre for its “lack of political will” to implement the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Meghalaya.