Shillong: The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisations (CoMSO) has decided to carry out a black flag protest on Friday as a mark of protest against the indifferent attitude of the Central government for implementing the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Meghalaya.
Several pressure groups have shown discontentment on the lack of seriousness shown by the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government.
According to CoMSO secretary Roy Kupar Synrem, who is also the general secretary of Hynñiewtrep Youth Council (HYC) a part of CoMSO, the situation would have been different had COVID-19 not been there.
“They are lucky that due to COVID-19, we couldn’t protest. Else, the situation would have been different. If the state government is not able to make ILP into a reality in the next few months, they will be facing with a lot of protests in Meghalaya. It’s not only CoMSO demanding this. All other pressure groups have the same demand. We may be different in our organisation’s name but we have one goal and that is to make Central Government implement ILP in Meghalaya,” said Synrem.
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“We are not happy with the way the Central Government has been treating us. Other Northeast states have got ILP, why this step-motherly treatment to Meghalaya?” questioned Synrem.
Synrem informed that the organisation will carry out black flag protest, members in all district headquarters will be putting up black flags on Friday.
He also informed that on December 4, the organisation will hold a sit-in demonstration in Shillong and all parts of the district.
“Almost a year that the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly passed the ILP Resolution demanding the Central government to implement ILP, but the government is not taking us seriously. Keeping in mind the situation we are in we can’t call a massive protest, so these two steps will be the beginning of a series that HYC along with CoMSO will be carrying out in the next few days and weeks,” said Synrem.
The organisation had earlier suggested the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government include all the 60 MLAs in their visit to Delhi while demanding the Central Government to implement the ILP.
Synrem also said that if required, the organisation is ready to join the government in pressuring the Central Government to implement the ILP.
