Shillong, June 9: Following the breakthrough in the recent murder of a tourist from Indore at Sohra, the demand for implementation of the inner line permit (ILP) – which is considered as an effective anti-influx mechanism – has gained a fresh momentum in Meghalaya.
The demand was reiterated at a protest held at Khyndailad – in the heart of Shillong – here on Tuesday to strongly condemn the attempt to malign the image of Meghalaya and its peace-loving people through misreporting and misrepresenting of facts about the entire tragic death of Raja Raghuvanshi, while on a honeymoon at Sohra.
The protest called by a concerned senior citizen Mary Victoria Marwein, a resident of Lawsohtun, Block-4 Shillong, saw participation of people from all walks of life including leaders from different civil society organizations.
“We are here to protest against the attempt to defame our state and the people. As mothers, we are concerned that the negative narratives will affect our children and loved ones, who are working and studying outside the state,” Marwein told reporters.
“I urge the state government and police department to take stern action against the family of the couple and those involved in tarnishing the image of the state. We demand that they should publicly apologize to the people of Meghalaya,” he said.
Kunal Murdani, a concerned citizen from Assam said, “This entire episode was put into bad light by not properly investigating and the media just jumped into conclusions and there was a certain caption where it branded Meghalaya as “crime prone hill”. I think the media should abstain from such captions and statements where without any investigation and information they just defamed a state’s integrity and safety of the people.”
Kunal however said he doesn’t think that there is any decline in the tourist inflow despite the attempt to malign the image of the state.
“Tourists have visited here and people have shared their past experiences and I don’t think tourism as we speak here I can see lots of tourists walking behind with their suitcases so I don’t think there is any decline in the tourist inflow but yes with the positive narration going on in the press now, I think we should bring in more tourists probably Shillong would go to limelight of the tourist, where people can come to Shillong safely, enjoy themselves and the beauty of Shillong,” he added.
President of the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) Roykupar Synrem has demanded the state government to immediately implement the ILP for regulating the entry of people from outside into the state. According to him, ILP would act as a strong deterrent for people who come to the state with the intention to commit a crime.
“In light of the murder of Raja Raghuvanshi at Sohra and after yesterday’s breakthrough into the case, we came to know that people from outside the state are responsible for committing murder. They came in guise as tourists or visitors coming to the state and after committing the crime on the same day, they left Meghalaya for Assam and proceeded towards UP. Not only this incident, we have seen the ATM robbery case at Mawkriah and other incidents where people from outside the state commit crimes and run to other states,” Synrem said.
“Had ILP been in place, there would have been a system where details of every visitor and everyone entering the state, their names will be recorded. Where they are staying and for how many days and whether these persons have left or still extending their stay in the state – all such records will be there,” he said adding “If a person enters the state and has to entered his name in the records of the state it will create a deterrence in his mind or in those people’s mind that my name has been recorded and that police know they have entered Meghalaya so it will create that deterrent effect and before committing a crime that person will think a hundred times.”
“That is why we are demanding that ILP should be implemented in Meghalaya, a system where the regulation on the movement of people should be there because as of now any person can come enters the state of Meghalaya commit a crime and then run away to other states so it creates a problem for police to track the movement of these people,” he further added.
On Monday, the leader of opposition Mukul Sangma had asserted the need to put a strong deterrence to prevent people from making Meghalaya as a destination to commit crimes and urged the government for immediate implementation of the Meghalaya Residents, Safety and Security Act (MRSSA), 2016.
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