The Khasi Students Union (KSU) will keep up its checks on migrant labourers until the Inner Line Permit (ILP) and amended Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act (MRSSA) are implemented in the state.
The KSU has also suggested the state government include clauses from the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Rules 2011 in the Meghalaya Identification Registration (Safety & Security) of the Migrant Workers Act.
This includes the police verification of migrant laborers from their place of origin as a document for registration, the penalty of a fine of Rs 5,000 to be replaced by imprisonment for the violating contractor.
Stating that after much debate the government yielded to include the police verification in the Meghalaya Identification Registration (Safety & Security) of Migrant Workers including the use of the Crime & Criminal Tracking Network against the migrant workers, the KSU said that the cabinet has also assured to take matter in the Assembly related to penalty to the contractors in violation of the act with a fine of Rs 1 lakh and jail of three months on future violation of the act.
Meanwhile, the Federation of the Khasi Jaintia Garo People (FKJGP) has welcomed the move of the state government to amend the Meghalaya Identification, Registration (Safety and Security) of Migrant Workers Act 2020.
“We welcome any mechanism that will check or regulate influx and we are positive about it,” the FKJGP said today.
“We don’t want those with criminal antecedents to come and take shelter in our State. We have found in many instances petty crimes like robbing are mostly done by such people coming from outside,” the pressure group president Dundee Khongsit said.
