SHILLONG, JAN 15: The Conrad K Sangma-led MDA government has decided to invite all stakeholders including political parties and civil society organizations to discuss on its proposal for an ILP-like provision in the new Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025, aimed at addressing the issue of influx and illegal immigration.
“We will invite all political parties and civil society organizations to discuss this proposal,” chief minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters on Thursday while reacting to opposition against the proposal without knowing its content.
“It would be incorrect for us to jump to any conclusion without actually seeing the content and the entire mechanism of how we would move forward in this.”
Sangma emphasized the need for a constructive approach, saying, “Our issue is illegal immigration. Issue is not ILP, issue is not immigration Act, issue is not MRSSA… We need laws, we need mechanisms to check it.”
He urged opposition parties to engage in dialogue, stating, “We are not saying that what we proposed is going to be right, we could be wrong… but I guess we could only reach that conclusion if we are able to have a dialogue or talk to each other.”
According to him, the government aims to balance the need for restrictions on illegal immigration with the concerns of the public and civil society organizations.
“We are trying to work towards it and we are trying to move forward and see and explore whether that is a possibility,” the CM said.
“We need to discuss this. We will be of course calling political parties, organizations to discuss this issue and obviously only after getting clarity and explaining to everybody on how we are planning to go forward with this and getting a consensus from everybody then only we will try to move forward but we have just started exploring and you simply saying no to it I think it is like really not how a political party and leadership or how organizations should perceive things. We need to have dialogue and only after understanding if they find that there is something they don’t agree to, we will try to find out ways to mend it or amend it or bring new aspects but it requires dialogues. All we are saying right now is that there is another option and let’s explore it. Let us see if it could serve the purpose of having a restriction to illegal immigration and checking and mechanism and all aspects,” he added.
Refuting the opposition leader Mukul Sangma’s claim that the government has failed to implement the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act (MRSSA), the CM said, “MRSSA is being implemented and in fact in many of the localities we have put up the system.”
Sangma acknowledged challenges in implementation, citing infrastructure and investment requirements, but emphasized progress in several areas. “There are of course challenges, there are infrastructures to be created, certain levels of investments to be made… but in large numbers of areas, it is being done and it is being expanded.”
On Mukul challenging the government to come up with a new law if they don’t trust the MRSSA, the CM said, “To bring up a new law, a new system, that’s exactly what we are discussing… there are certain challenges in the MRSSA.”
He highlighted discrepancies between the Act and rules, citing the example of entry and exit checkpoints. “For example, the rules mentioned about the fact that and this is during the earlier government’s time, so they came out with the rules that said that entry and exit checkpoints would be created but now if you go back to the Act, the Act did not have any provision within the Act that says that checkpoints can be put up. The rules say check gates can be put up. We all know the rules are made on the basis of the Act so if the Act doesn’t have any provisions for that the rules cannot say that you can have check gates.
So there’s a disconnect between that for whatever reason it was done that time that I’m not very sure about but it does not go in line with the Act itself. Therefore there are many areas where the Act and the Rules are not matching and all those aspects of checkgates being implemented without the change in the Act itself cannot be done.”
Sangma emphasized the need for dialogue, saying, “We feel we need to discuss this and that is why we are discussing this aspect… including political parties, organizations, and see how we can achieve this matter.”
By Our Reporter
