Governor Satya Pal Malik will raise the matter of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) and amendment to the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act (MRSSA) with the central government, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has informed.
Sangma said this after meeting Malik at Raj Bhavan today.
“He will be taking up the issues at his level along with the Union Home Ministry to move it forward,” Sangma said. “He has also asked me to simultaneously follow up on the matter.”
The Governor will go to New Delhi on December 17 and will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah while there.
According to the CM, Malik told him that he is concerned for the people of the state as they are important to him also. This is a more conciliatory line than that which was taken by Malik’s predecessor, Tathagata Roy, who forwarded the MRSSA amendment to the Centre to get the latter’s take on the constitutionality of the legislation.
On the MRSSA amendment, Sangma said the Governor has read the entire bill and feels that it is “doable and possible”.
“We hope that we will find a positive way forward,” Sangma added. “But at the same time he feels that this matter still needs to be discussed with the Centre because there were certain concerns earlier and because of that this bill did not go through at that point in time. Therefore it will only be appropriate to discuss it with the Centre and that’s what he will be doing.”
