Pro-ILP activists in Meghalaya suspend agitation

Pressure groups in Meghalaya demanding implementation of the 140-year-old Eastern Bengal Frontier Regulation Act which restricts entry of outsiders in the state, today suspended their four-month-long agitation after a meeting with the state government.
"They have agreed to study various laws which are already in existence. The contention of the government is that we are going to look at the existing laws, integrate them and also supplement them to arrive at an institutionalise mechanism to tackle the issue of influx and illegal immigration," Chief Minister Mukul Sangma told reporters after a two-hour-long meeting.
The suspension of agitation would bring in temporary relief in the state after unrest and violence since September 2 last year following the agitation of 13 pro-Inner Line Permit (ILP) groups.

Copies of the legislations passed in the past Assemblies would be made available to the pro-ILP groups, Sangma said, adding the meeting was convened to send a clear message to the pressure groups that the state government had the political will to address the issue of influx.
"We will continue to engage both the state government and the NGOs to find a way forward and come up with a mechanism to have an end result," he added.
"Copies of at least 52 existing legislative measures passed by the Assemblies in the past 40 years will be provided to us and we will study them before taking a final decision in the matter," Khasi Students' Union (KSU) president Daniel Khyriem said.