Shillong, Jan 31: The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organizations (CoMSO) will hold a five-day sit-in-demonstrations in the evening starting from February 4 in protest against the Centre’s delay to implement the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in the state.

The CoMSO took this decision on Friday during a meeting of 12 pro-ILP groups.

The decision came a day after Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma met Union home minister Amit Shah on the issue.

At the same time, CoMSO has also decided to deploy its cadres to assist the Directorate of Infiltration of the state government to check influx.

CoMSO chairman, Robertjune Kharjahrin told reporters that the protest the evening sit-in-demonstrations will be held in Shillong from February 4 to 8 from 2 pm to 5 pm, adding that the venue for the protest will be informed later.

“It has already been two months after the State Legislative Assembly passed the resolution to urge the Centre to implement the ILP in Meghalaya on December 19, last year. However, the Union home minister has not given any assurance to the chief minister (during a meeting in New Delhi) that the Centre would consider the resolution even though the Chief Minister claimed to have got a positive response,” Kharjahrin said.

He said that this was the fourth time that the Centre has chosen not to respect the state government’s demand to introduce laws for protecting the interest and welfare of the indigenous people.

“The first was when the state government had passed the Residential Permit Bill in 1973 and the President of India had refused to give his assent to it. The President of India had also not granted assent to the Meghalaya Employment Bill in 1983, as well as the Cabinet Committee on Public Grievances’ decision to implement a three-tier identity card system in 2006 was not approved by the Centre,” Kharjahrin said.

Kharjahrin said that the delay has made CoMSO to believe that there is a conspiracy behind suggesting that the Centre did not want to give protection to the state and the indigenous people.

He announced that the CoMSO would also continue to protest all official visits of Central ministers to the state.

The confederation also demanded that all 60 legislators of the state should aggressively pursue the ILP demand with the Centre.

Seeking support of the citizens of the state, the CoMSO chairman said that the ILP demand is a people’s movement and the NGOs are only the organizers.