Meghalaya House adopts ILP resolution; protests in rest of N-E

GUWAHATI/AGARTALA: The Meghalaya Assembly passed a unanimous resolution for implementation of Inner line permit regime in the state on Thursday amid demands and protests by local groups. In neighbouring Assam, protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) continued and mobile internet services remained blocked throughout the state on Thursday, even as the Gauhati high court directed the state government to lift curbs.

“We have passed a unanimous resolution today for implementation of ILP, like they did to Manipur. We will now impress upon the Centre to consider the implementation of ILP in Meghalaya,” said Prestone Tynsong, Deputy Chief Minister, Meghalaya.

The resolution was passed in a special session called on Thursday amid demands of ILP in the state which became louder after the CAA was passed by Parliament. Most of the state comes under Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, hence, exempted from the CAA.

“The state needs ILP. Our concern is brothers and sisters from outside. We are such a small population of tribals ... We want the people to come from outside but with knowledge of the government,” said Tynsong adding that the state government will simplify things in the rules once the ILP is approved by the Centre.

Meanwhile, Robert June Kharjharin, chairman of CoMSO, an umbrella body demanding ILP welcomed the move. “ILP will regulate entry of foreigners. It will also ensure that we are exempted in CAA ... We appeal to the union government to implement ILP,” Kharjharin said.

An official said mobile internet services remained blocked in Meghalaya till 5pm on Friday even as curfew which was clamped in parts of Shillong was relaxed for 13 hours on Thursday.

Meanwhile, in Assam, mobile internet services remained blocked despite the Gauhati High Court, hearing a clutch of PILs, directing the state government to lift curbs by 5pm on Thursday.

Assam has been protesting the CAA for a different reason: groups fear that the newlyamended law would lead to an influx of migrants into the state thus disrupting its ethnic fabric -something which has been at the centre of a decades-long agitation that was resolved in the 1980s. However, several students groups in northeastern states have released a statement in support of the students of Jamia Millia Islamia, who were detained and reportedly assaulted police on December 15.

A bench of Justices Manojit Bhuyan and Saumitra Saikia directed that mobile Internet services should be restored even as it said that the state government was free to “take steps to curb and stop dissemination of explosive messages and videos …” An official with direct knowledge of the proceeding of the court said that the bench did not take into account a report of the Intelligence Bureau. As violent protests raged in the state, mobile internet services were banned on December 11 in select districts. The ban was extended to all of Assam.

Meanwhile, in Manipur’s capital Imphal, a 12-hour general strike call given by the Left disrupted normal life. In Tripura, anti-CAA protests were held by the Left Front in Agartala.

In Mizoram, to extend their solidarity to the nation-wide students’ agitations, over 500 students donned in black-attire on Wednesday organised sit-in demonstrations at the Mizoram University campus park.