ILPS: Avoiding Tightrope Walk
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 27 2015 -

The desire of the committee constituted to draft the new Bill on Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) to incorporate all the five points as suggested by Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) comes as a positive step towards ending a stalemate that has crippled normal life at least in the valley districts of Manipur.

The five key points suggested and demanded by JCILPS are issuing of passes to all migrant workers from outside the state at various entry points; making the cut-off base-year for implementation of the Bill from 1951; giving no land ownership rights to all outside migrants entering Manipur after 1951; strengthening labour department for registration and regulation of inter-state migrant labourers and detection and deportation of illegal migrants.

The renewed interest of the Government to encompass the essential components already made public by JCILPS is also seen with suspicion from certain quarters.

This was caused by the trust deficit caused primarily by the ways how the State Government had treated the wisdom of those who spearheaded the movement for the right to protect indigenous communities as limited.

The fear of displeasing New Delhi came as a stumbling block in the guise of conditionality like that the Bill had to be drafted within the ambit of the Indian Constitution.

While one can see the impact of the difficulties posed by contravening the Constitution of India, what has not been considered is the fact that very few dared seek and unravel the political component of the demand made so far.

All efforts made so far have been governed purely by the expediency of legal framework.

Here, it should be reminded that all legal enactments around the world had been triggered by the necessity of considering the political core of any movements.

And it is this core that the ruling dispensation should not only consider but also lay stress on.

How the regime finds a way out is largely contingent upon what JCILPS has often referred to – standing by a strong political will and conviction.

This is how all honestly determined ruling governments have avoided tightrope walks when pressured by the assertive voices of people.