Conrad presses for extension of ILP to Meghalaya

Shillong, February 18

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Concerns of Meghalaya over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) have been addressed as most areas of the state have come under the Sixth Schedule, which exempts them from the law, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has said.

Sangma, who heads the National People’s Party (NPP), also stressed on the requirement for the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime in his state, which would restrict the entry of “outsiders”.

Expressing concern over the “spillover effect” in Meghalaya if the CAA was implemented in other states, he said, “We have just requested the Government of India if we can still have the ILP.”

“There are enough provisions in the CAA right now to protect us in one way, apart from the cutoff date that they’ve put and apart from the fact that 99.9 per cent is exempted… All these points are there. But we have still raised our concerns with the Government of India, and we have also asked for the extension of the ILP or any other mechanism that will help us address those concerns,” he said.

“We have asked if the non-scheduled areas can also be exempted (from the law),” the CM said.

“When the CAA had come out in the first draft, there was no provision of exemption for any state. After we raised the concern, we met the Home Minister and other leaders, then there was a revisit in the entire draft and they came up with a provision where Meghalaya and other areas with Sixth Schedule and ILP were exempted,” Sangma said.