Dimapur, Sep. 5 (EMN): The Joint Committee on Prevention of Illegal Immigration (JCPI) has flayed the state government for what it stated was the latter’s indecision over the proposed promulgation of ILP in Dimapur district.
In a press statement issued on Thursday, the committee maintained that the state government should not waste any more time and start implementing the Abhishek Committee findings. “The SOP on ILP/BEFR should give more teeth to the government to identify and deport the lakhs of ILP holders inside the ILP zones of the state – the hill districts – who have set up commercial activities and taken up residency on permanent basis.
“The ILP is only a pass to enter the state for a short or temporary period of time and does not give outsiders the right to engage in commercial activities. The government is reminded that only indigenous people can live, work and earn in ILP zones and all these ILP holders engaging in trading and commercial activities is illegal. Except for bonafide central and state government servants/PSU employees/bank officials, tourists on visit, etc., all ILP holders-cum-traders should be identified and their valid ILP cancelled and deported from the districts,” it stated.
According to the committee, the exercise to identify ILP holders in the hill districts who have misused their passes to engage in commercial transactions and businesses does not require the RIIN exercise to be completed.
“While the RIIN exercise is underway and should be expedited, the government should immediately declare Dimapur as an ILP zone in view of the publication of NRC in Assam. The JCPI is puzzled as to why this is so difficult when the former Governor PB Acharya himself said that Dimapur should come under ILP? What is the government afraid of when the SC has already dismissed the PIL against ILP?
“Lastly, ILP or no ILP the government should immediately set up checkpoints at all the entry points along the entire Disputed Area Belt. The JCPI is beginning to suspect that the government is being vindictive in its approach. It hasn’t shown the maturity or the decisiveness on an issue where the people will have nothing but gratitude for the government if their interest is protected,” read the statement.
The JCPI, it stated, has been ‘forced to make the declaration that if the full scope of the Abhishek Committee findings is not implemented, the stakeholders will be forced to rise to the occasion.’
