Meghalaya Assembly passes Residents Safety (Amendment) Bill 2020
SHILLONG | Mar 19:
The Meghalaya Assembly today unanimously passed the Meghalaya Residents, Safety and Security (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which seeks to verify and regulate the entry of persons to the State.
As per the amendment bill, every person who intends to stay in the state of Meghalaya for more than 48 hours shall furnish information in the manner prescribed under the rules. At the same time, the amendment bill also aimed to regulate the tenants or any other persons residing in rented houses or any other places in the state.
Replying the amendment motion moved by the Opposition Congress on the amendment bill, Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma said that the Government intends to introduce a system which is technology driven.
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"We do not want to introduce an outdated system where people have to stand in the queue for hours. Our system will be technology driven. We will like to put in place a mechanism which will help to check and protect the people of the State. But at the same we want to assure that there is no harassment to the people who are coming to the State," Sangma said.
He further said that the Government will try to balance the two objectives of ensuring that the mechanism which will be put in place would be able to protect and also ensuring that there is minimum inconvenience to the people who come to visit the State.
"Once the technology is in place we will be able to decide on the things which are required to be done. We will try to create a software to build the database of people who are entering the State," Meghalaya Chief Minister said.
Entry and Exit Points
Meanwhile, Sangma said that the Government would have to spend Rs 100 core for purchasing of the land at Umling for setting up of the entry and exit point.
"But after the long drawn exercise, the Government managed to save Rs 100 since the land at Umling, Ri-Bhoi belongs to the Government. We will now need only Rs 60 crore for development of the various infrastructures," he informed.
Meghalaya Chief Minister also informed that the Government has raised some concerns on a few of the provisions which were there in the ordinance. "We have tried to address the concern of the Governor in the amendment bill," Sangma said.
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He also said that the Government will try its best to ensure that the amendment bill which will soon become an Act is implemented at the earliest. "We understand that this particular legislation is very crucial to protect and safeguard the rights and interests of the people of the State," Meghalaya Chief Minister said.
Earlier, the Opposition Congress MLAs including Ampareen Lyngdoh, Process T Sawkmie and George B. Lyngdoh had moved an amendment motion on the amendment bill which was later withdrawn after the reply of the Meghalaya Chief Minister.
The Congress MLAs wanted the Government to direct the deputy commissioners to appoint the authorities who will implement this legislation in areas where there are no local bodies. The Umroi Congress MLA, George B. Lyngdoh also expressed concern that there are entities who are behaving like the Government in checking entry of people coming from outside.
"I am of the view that the district administration should appoint authorities who will look into the entry of people from outside in such places where there are gaps. The appointment of such authorities should be expedited," the Umroi Congress MLA said.
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It may mentioned that the amendment bill also maintained that "every persons" shall not be construed to mean persons who have been residing permanently in the state and includes his or her relative or members of family as defined under clause (i) of section 2 of the Act, Members of Parliament, Members of State Assemblies, members of judiciary, who is employed with state government or the union government, who is employed under a board, corporation, society, organization or agency, partly or wholly owned by the state or union government, professionals like medical practitioners, lawyers, chartered accountants, architects, attorneys, engineers, consultants by donor or funding agencies or any other professionals and any other category, class of persons, individuals, which may be notified by the government from time to time.
The amendment bill further stated that any persons who willfully fail to furnish the information or provide false formation as required as per section 4A shall be liable to be punished under section 176 and /or section 177 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
