Meghalaya MP Ricky Syngkon Meets Amit Shah, Presses for Early Implementation of ILP

Voice of the People Party (VPP) Lok Sabha MP, Dr. Ricky Andrew Syngkon on Tuesday met Home Minister Amit Shah, and urged the central government to expedite the extension of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regulation to Meghalaya.

In a letter submitted to the Home Minister, Syngkon said the ILP would address concerns over demographic change, land alienation and unregulated migration in the tribal-majority state.

“It (ILP) strengthens border management and internal security by regulating inward movement and providing a transparent documentary trail,” Syngkon told Shah.

Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly and unfenced and thus prone to infiltration. It also shares an 884.9km-long border with Assam.

Syngkon also informed Shah on the resolution adopted by the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly on December 19, 2019 urging the union government to include Meghalaya under the ILP.

“This rare all-party consensus, which included members from the ruling coalition as well as the opposition, reflected a deep and long-standing concern across our society about demographic vulnerability, land alienation, and unregulated influx,” Syngkon said.

He said successive state governments have repeatedly placed the ILP demand before the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, and civil society organisations have pursued the matter through entirely peaceful and constitutional means,” the VPP Lok Sabha member said, adding that in the absence of a conclusive decision, public anxiety has persisted and, in some pockets, intensified.

Syngkon pointed out that states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur, where ILP is in force, have streamlined online permit systems and therefore has not hindered tourist inflows.

“ILP does not target law-abiding citizens and the system would only regulate entry by requiring documentation of identity, purpose and duration of stay and discourage illegal settlement and benami land transactions,” he argued.

Cautioning that prolonged uncertainty over implementation of the ILP could erode public trust and time-bound implementation of ILP would reinforce cooperative federalism, Syngkon urged the Home Minister to constitute a joint technical committee with the state government to finalise implementation modalities.

He said the committee would provide clear communication to the parliament and the state assembly on the status and roadmap of the proposal.

“Meghalaya has always been a proud and committed part of the Indian Union. Our people seek not exclusion but protection; not privilege but parity with similarly placed North-Eastern states; not confrontation but a cooperative, constitutional solution that balances national interests with the legitimate anxieties of small indigenous communities in a sensitive border state,” the VPP MP said, expressing optimism that the Home Ministry will give this long-pending demand the sympathetic, time-bound consideration it deserves.