JCILPS against land purchase notice

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jul 24 : The Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) has condemned the gazette notification issued by the Revenue Department on sale, purchase and registration of land on July 7, 2021.
A press release issued by JCILPS said that the notification signed by the Deputy  Secretary of the Revenue Department is not only against the long pending demand of the committee but also incomplete.
According to the notification, the Permanent Residence certificate of the buyer is to be provided by the District Magistrate concerned, the committee said and asked on what condition is the District Magistrate going to identify the applicant as a permanent resident.
It further asked if everyone possessing a valid identity card issued by the State Government is going to be considered as a permanent resident.
Saying that the responsibility of checking the background  of the buyer including the source of his/her income lies with the District Magistrate and the final inspection of the sale and purchase of land is to be done by a Cabinet sub committee as per the notification, JCILPS asked how much can these be put into practise as there is nothing influential persons and the wealthy cannot do in Manipur.
An uncountable number of non-locals will start entering Manipur once the State is put on the railway map of India  and they, especially the big corporates, will start buying lands here for commercial purposes, the committee cautioned.
Asserting that the State Government seems to be lacking the will power to save the indigenes of Manipur as Inner Line Permit System has not been amended till date despite having the legislative power to do so, the JCILPS contended that Manipur ILPS Guidelines 2019 is comparable to a toothless tiger as the guidelines don't define indigenous people, native and permanent residents, apart from not fixing 1951 as a base year for identifying outsiders.
The JCILPS  then urged the Government to incorporate the important clauses and articles of The Manipur People Bill 2018 that was passed by the Manipur Legislative Assembly to the ILPS guidelines by amending the latter at the earliest.