The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisatios (COMSO) has expressed its unhappiness with the outcome of the meeting between Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi today.
“We feel that the Union Home Minister is taking the issue of granting Inner Line Permit (ILP) to our State very lightly and took us the social organisations as well the State as a whole for a ride,” the COMSO said.
It also said that for the BJP and the NDA, the protection of the indigenous tribes of Meghalaya and their identity are not important in comparison to the indigenous people of other North East states.
COMSO also questioned the State government for seeking approval of the Centre on Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
“MRSS (Amendment) Bill 2020 is a bill framed under the State List. We don’t understand why this legislation needs approval or green signal or it needs to be discussed with the Union Home Ministry before being assented to by the Governor of the State,” COMSO said.
It also said that it was wrong on the part of the former Governor Tathagata Roy to refer the bill to the Home Ministry “as this will set a very bad precedent for future legislations as well and undermine the power of the State of Meghalaya in particular the State legislature to legislate and violate the very federal structure as mandated by the constitution of our country”.
COMSO also said that the present Governor Satya Pal Malik had publicly expressed that the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security (Amendment) Bill, 2020 can be assented too.
“But we fail to understand the reason for the delay to give his assent. We therefore request the honourable Governor to give his assent to the MRSSA Bill 2020 at the earliest,” it said.
COMSO also said that it will soon have consultations with leaders of different organisations to collectively decide the future course of action on this matter.
