‘Outsider’ registration: Meghalaya CM likens it to hotel check-in

New Delhi: Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma equated the recently amended Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act, 2016 with the basics of checking-in a hotel. “When you go to any hotel, you have to register in the hotel. You have to give your name, your ID card. All we are doing is now the same registration will be done by the government and it will be centralised,” said Sangma on the sidelines of the 7th Young Leaders Connect (YLC) in New Delhi on Saturday.

Last week, the Meghalaya state cabinet approved the amendment to the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act, 2016 according to which, all outsiders visiting the state will now have to do a mandatory registration if they intend to stay more than 24 hours in the state.

Speaking exclusively with EastMojo, the chief minister said that it’s a mechanism to ensure that we are able to regulate and find out the people who are coming in the state. He added that it is important to know the movement of people, not just for their safety but also to enable the government to take measures to facilitate things.

On the process for the registration, the CM said that the registration process and rules are being framed right now. “But it will be a centralised database based on a QR code system and it will be an online system which will be very easy for people to register in case it is required,” he said.

“It is a simple registration process and is not meant to in any way to stop people from coming into the state. It is a simple measure to register and seek information, that’s all,” Sangma added.

During his address at YLC-7 on development in Northeast, the CM said that we are trying “to create a concept of something like European Union.” As pitching a single state shows investors a small market, but when the region is presented as a whole, it shows interested parties a market of around 40 million people.

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Also, he pressed on the need for recording and identifying interstate trade in the region so that we can come out with policies. And only after this can we move to exports.

Meanwhile, speaking with EastMojo on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), the Meghalaya CM lauded Union home minister Amit Shah’s efforts for trying a different approach around this time and meeting with stakeholders to understand their concerns regarding the Bill.

He said that with this approach, there will be an opportunity for everyone to be able to express their concerns about CAB and an opportunity for the Centre to be able to address those concerns.

Earlier this year, Sangma had launched his flagship ‘Walk to Work’ campaign which aims at multiple benefits including cutting down of carbon emission, reduction in road congestion and more importantly for health and fitness.

Speaking on alternatives for promoting fitness through other avenues like public parks and gyms, the CM said, “For my Chief Minister’s Rural Development Fund I have set up one outdoor gym in my constituency, which happens to be the district headquarters. And I intend to expand that to many other districts.”