JCILPS decries Govt's failure to put Bill in public domain
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 19 2018: The Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) has decried the State Government's failure to put the proposed Bill for protection of indigenous people from the onslaughts of incessant influx in the public domain.

Speaking to media persons at their office today, JCILPS convenor Arjun Telheiba said that JCILPS and other stakeholders are not yet aware of the exact contents of the Bill which is going to be tabled in the Monsoon session of the State Assembly.

Notably, the Monsoon session of the State Assembly starts tomorrow.

Taking serious note of an unwanted incident that occurred in 2015 after a Bill was passed by the.

State Assembly, JCILPS has been working hard by holding talks for more than 10 times with leaders of CSOs and other stakeholders of both the hills and the valley.

Subsequently, JCILPS and other stakeholders reached a consensus on the enactment of a law which are acceptable to all communities and capable of protecting all indigenous peoples.

Stakeholders including leaders from hill areas held a meeting with the State Government in the CM's Secretariat on June 28 for the second time regarding the Bill and the State Government gave copies of the proposed Bill to all the participants of the meeting.

Later, the stakeholders thoroughly discussed the proposed Bill of the State Government on July 3 and July 10 at Hotel Imphal and Hotel Tampha respectively.

The stakeholders, after threadbare discussions, submitted a report to the State Government on July 11 suggesting omission of some points and insertion of some others in the proposed Bill.

The next day, the State Government again invited them (stakeholders) and assured that the suggestions made by the stakeholders would be reflected in the proposed Bill before it is tabled in the State Assembly.

Since then the stakeholders were demanding the Government to put the proposed Bill in thepublic domain but the State Government has been keeping the proposed Bill away from public notice, for reasons best known to them, Arjun Telheiba said.

It is not clear whether the proposed Bill would be acceptable to the JCILPS and other stakeholders or the State Government has made the suggested changes in the proposed Bill.

If the proposed Bill is accepted by the people of the State, then it will be well and good but if it hurts the sentiments of any community, then there will be no let up in the civil movement for protection of indigenous people from the .onslaught of incessant influx through a Constitutional mechanism, Arjun Telheiba said.

He then appealed the State Government to ensure that the proposed Bill is acceptable to all communities and does not include a word or concept which is against the desire and aspirations of the people.

If the Bill turns out to be against the desire of people, there will be public uproar throughout the State.

He also said that if the Government is going to produce the Bill without much changes to the draft which was handed over to the stakeholders on June 28 which adopted 1951 as the base year for identification of non-local people, people may accept it.

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