Meghalaya govt to introduce 3-tier identity card system

Shillong, July 25 (UNI) The Meghalaya government has sought a month's time to introduce a three-tier identity card to check illegal Bangladeshi migrants to enter and settle in the state, Chief Minister J D Rymbai said here today.

Apart from introducing the three-tier card, Mr Rymbai said the government would be writing to the Centre for creation of a new department to check infiltration under the state Home department.

''We need the co-operation of the people, traditional institutional heads and NGOs to help the government to tackle the influx of illegal migrants in the state,'' Mr Rymbai told reporters after the leaders of the state student body, the Khasi Students' Union (KSU) submitted their long-pending charter of demands to him.

The KSU had been demanding the state government should take measures to contain the influx of foreign nationals through stringent regulations like introduction of the three-tier identity card scheme based on 1971 as the qualifying year for citizenship ''only to Indian nationals but not to illegal migrants,'' Inner Line Permit System and Work Permit System.

In fact, the previous Lapang government in its Cabinet meeting had decided to introduce the three-tier card system but without a cut-off year.

Welcoming the positive response of the Rymbai-led government, KSU president Samuel Jyrwa said the introduction of the three-tier identity card scheme would help contain the unabated influx of illegal migrants but urged the government to have a cut-off year without which the scheme would be self-defeating.

Mr Jyrwa said the students' body also demanded that the government should not implement the Indo-Nepal Treaty 1950, in Meghalaya in view of ''the large scale influx of Nepali community'' in the state.

Recently, Meghalaya police, in its joint exercise with the department to check infiltration, detected more than 500 suspected Bangladeshi nationals who took shelter in the city.

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