Pressure Groups' Violence Against Migrant Workers Stalls Development Projects In Meghalaya

Members of pressure groups in Meghalaya, demanding the implementation of the British-era Inner Line Permit (ILP) system have continued to assault migrant workers as per a report by The Hindu.

This situation poses a threat to several development projects across the state.

Officials from the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) have reported that on 12 July, a group of masked and helmeted youths attacked six labourers working on the maintenance of the Shillong-Umiam Road at Mawiong, near Shillong.

One critically injured worker was taken to a hospital in Guwahati for treatment. “All the labourers are refusing to work in Meghalaya after the assault,” an NHIDCL official stated.

The NHIDCL has also filed a First Information Report at the local police station and wrote to the Deputy Commissioner of the East Khasi Hills district, seeking action against the assailants and a safe environment for the project workers to carry out their tasks.

The police consequently summoned some Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) leaders to a station in Shillong regarding the organisation’s drives to check the “work permits” of non-tribal people and migrant labourers.

The KSU leaders have remained defiant, asserting that their members would continue to “do the government’s job” if the ILP and the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act, passed in 2020, were not implemented.

The union claims these measures are necessary to control the influx of “illegal immigrants” and protect indigenous communities. Union members also recently set up a temporary “ILP check gate” on a major highway in the state’s Ri-Bhoi district to emphasise their point.

The ILP is a temporary travel document currently required for Indians to enter Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland, based on the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873.