UDP to constitute committee to deal with influx problem

The United Democratic Party (UDP), an ally of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government today said it will constitute a committee to propose safeguard mechanisms to deal with the problem of influx and illegal immigration in the state.

The decision in this regard was taken at the central executive committee of the party held here which reviewed among other issues the NRC update in neighbouring Assam, a senior party leader said.

"We have decided to constitute a committee to conduct an in-depth study into the problem of influx and illegal immigration in the state," party general secretary Jemino Mawthoh told mediapersons.

He said the party committee was tasked with coming up with "realistic, practical and comprehensive" mechanism to deal with the issue of influx based on views and opinions the committee get from party workers and stakeholders.

He said the party is also open for an NRC-like exercise in the state and the CEC has also decided to take up the matter with the political partners in the MDA government.

The party leader said the views and proposals will then be submitted to the government of the day.

Mawthoh admitted that there had been a lot of apprehension about the gravity of the situation especially on the possible fallout of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) update in Assam.

Post the NRC update on July 30, the infiltration wing of the state police have strengthened checking of credentials of visitors entering the state.

Superintendent of Police (Infiltration) Debangshu Sangma said the exercise is not new and will continue until further orders.

The North East Students Organisation, an umbrella organisation of students body organisations of various states in the region, has also demanded that NRC should also be conducted by all states to find out the number of non-genuine citizens with 1971 as the cut-off year.

Meghalaya, with a population of about 3 million people, shares a 443-km long international border with Bangladesh on its south and nearly 900-km long interstate border with Assam on its north.