SHILLONG, Sept 28 NNN: The Mukul Sangma government has failed to convince the civil society organisations with its \u2018Regulation of Landlord & Tenancy Verification Bill 2013\u2019 as a legislative measure to address and enforce regulations to contain influx and illegal immigration, instead of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system.
\nThe civil society organisations of Meghalaya have just completed its fourth phase of agitation yesterday and they are likely to announce to its fifth phase of agitation tomorrow, according to sources from the civil bodies.
\nKhasi Students Union (KSU), FKJGP, HNYF, Garo Students Union (GSU), JSSU, CSWO, KWWADA, ADE and RBYF have been spearheading the demand for the Inner Line Permit in Meghalaya.
\nThese ongoing series of agitations have begun after the break-down of the August 29 meeting between the Mukul Sangma government and the NGOs in Shillong.
\nThe Mukul Sangma government wanted other mechanisms instead of implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) to control the influx issue in Meghalaya but the civil society organisations rejected the state government’s proposal.
\nYesterday, in a move to address the issue of influx, a Meghalaya government cabinet gave its nod to the \u2018Regulation of Landlord & Tenancy Verification Bill 2013\u2019 as a legislative measure to address and enforce regulations to contain influx and illegal immigration.
\n\u201cThe bill will provide an effective mechanism to put into the loop the local authorities in scheduled and non-scheduled areas in which the enforcing agencies along with local authorities will have a mechanism mandated through the new law,\u201d Chief Minister Mukul Sangma told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
\nHe said, this is common concern of all the citizen of the state that we need to understand that illegal immigration and influx do not confine only in the localities of cities and towns but beyond these.
\nDefining the \u2018Landlord\u2019 as covering all those people who are providing accommodation in their premises, the Chief Minister said the idea is that people who come for some work can stay here and can go back besides that the landlords are regulated as to why their tenants need renting accommodation.
\nThe cabinet has also approved the proposed drafting of the bill and then notified it for public consultation by October 3, he said.
\nAlleging the Opposition coalition, the United Democratic party-led Meghalaya People Forum (MPF), to be behind the pro-Inner Line Permit activists\u2019 anti-government stirs in the state since September 4, Mukul said, \u201cI have reasons to believe that they adding fuel to the fire and I have reasons to believe that they must be in close contact with these agitating friends\/pressure groups\u2026 We are politicians we know who operates how.\u201d
\nStating that the kind of pressures that his government is facing on the ILP is \u201ccoercive and dictatorial\u201d, the Chief Minister questioned if imposing or infusing a sense of fear psychosis by violent and militant activities is a democratic form.
\n\u201cOr is it not a coercive measure, a dictatorial attitude so that people will fear them,\u201d he said, adding that he is sure that none of the citizens like the kind of situation, the bandh associated with violence.<\/p>\n\n