Troubled bill and mechanism
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: March 16, 2015 -
Though the Manipur Regulation of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant Workers Bill, 2015 was tabled in the State Assembly on March 13, the bill is not likely to have a smooth sail when it comes up for discussion on the floor of the Assembly on Monday.
The bill proposes provisions for not allowing non-residents of the State to enter the State without registration.
It also proposes that no indigenous State resident owners will be allowed to lease out premises for more than 30 days without registration.
When one dissects the proposed provisions, at least one thing is clear.
The onus on curbing the inflow of migrants seems to have been unnecessarily put on the court of indigenous land owners.
Moreover, certain issues raised by the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) seem to have been ignored.
It is worth recalling that the committee had already reminded the Chief Minister to make certain changes of terminologies besides redefinition, replacement of clauses when the bill was in the draft phase.
JCILP had made it clear that certain words like “visitors” were vague and suggested that the same should be changed to non-indigenous, non-Manipuri or migrants.
The committee had also stated that the objective of the bill should be for protection of the indigenous peoples and land from demographic marginalisation.
JCILP demanded the insertion of a clause which prohibits holding land ownership to non-indigenous people besides the creation of a full-fledged labour department for the registration and regulation of inter-state migrant labourers.
While the demand for the inclusion a mechanism for the detection and deportation of illegal migrants or other non-indigenous people in the State might be a difficult proposition for the State Government, JCILP is not likely to rescind from any of its demands.
Under such circumstances, the State Government and the JCILP may once again lock horns resulting in a stalemate. Finding a point of convergence at this juncture may be indeed difficult.
However, the State Government and those in favour of enacting a bill on curbing the unabated inflow of migrants into State should also go beyond the debates of framing only mechanisms while burying the political implications of enacting such bill.
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