Meghalaya Minister admits difficulty in getting Centre’s approval for implementation of ILP

Shillong, Dec 28: Meghalaya Health and Family Welfare Minister and BJP MLA, Alexander Laloo Hek admitted that the State Government will be facing an uphill task to get the approval from the Centre for implementing the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in the State.
“The journey will not be an easy one. Going to Delhi to get the ILP is almost like climbing a tree to pluck a fruit. The procedure would be a lengthy one in order to get an ILP for the State,” Hek said while speaking to reporters here today.
According to him, the Centre will seek the views and opinions of various stakeholders including people from different communities, NGOs and even the Government before taking a call on the matter.
Meghalaya Health and Family Welfare Minister said that the meeting with the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah on the demand for implementation of ILP is inconclusive adding that the Government delegation will again meet the Union Home Minister after the New Year celebrations.
Replying to a question if the Centre agrees to implement ILP on the condition that it will withdraw the privileges of sixth schedule provisions in the state, Hek said that these are only speculations and there was no such discussion. He stated that the Government had only impressed that Meghalaya should be totally exempted from the provisions of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
“At my personal level, I had met Union Home Minister, Amit Shah and Minister of State K Reddy seeking exemption of Meghalaya from the provisions of the CAA,” Meghalaya Health and Family Welfare Minister said.
Earlier, the Meghalaya Government had recently sent the gazette notification related to the ILP resolution to the Centre. TNT Bureau