SHILLONG, JUN 24: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) has strongly opposed the Meghalaya government’s reported plan to convert the ‘Facilitation Centre’ at Umling, Ri Bhoi District, into a food court, calling it a move that undermines efforts to monitor influx into the state.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, KSU general secretary Reuben A Najiar said the Union learnt through media reports that the government intends to hand over the location to companies like KFC, Starbucks, Subway and others.
“The Union does not oppose such food companies setting up in the state, but not at the Facilitation Centre,” Najiar stated.
The Facilitation Centre was set up under the Meghalaya Residents Safety & Security Act, 2016 (MRSSA) to maintain records of entry and exit of people from other states.
According to Najiar, the MRSSA was enacted in 2016 following KSU’s intense agitation for ILP in 2013-14, when the then Mukul Sangma government promised “comprehensive mechanisms” to check illegal entry while the ILP demand was pending with the Centre.
“Though the MRSSA is not as strong a law as ILP to protect indigenous communities, it still has provisions for a ‘Facilitation Centre’ similar to the Entry/Exit Point under ILP,” he said.
The KSU leader pointed to 2019, when an amendment was brought in without full implementation of the 2016 Act.
Following a petition, the High Court stayed the functioning of the Centre after government lawyers “failed to properly explain the rationale behind setting up the ‘Facilitation Centre’.”
Najiar alleged that even after the court ruling, “the Government did not appeal against it but remained silent because it did not want to implement the MRSSA.”
Raising concerns over demographic security, Najiar said the Union “puts a question mark on the Meghalaya Government as to whether it is concerned at all about the peace and security of the people and about protecting the indigenous community from influx of other communities, which could reduce us to a minority in our own state, like the Tripuris in Tripura.” He added that the MRSSA remains unimplemented 10 years after enactment, and amendments to the Meghalaya Identification, Registration (Safety & Security) of Migrant Workers Act, 2020, carried out in 2024, are yet to be brought into force.
Comparing Meghalaya’s approach with other Northeastern states, Najiar said “the Assam Government is vigorously deporting illegal Muslim settlers in Assam, and the West Bengal Government is doing the same. Now even Arunachal Pradesh and other states have started following these deportations of outsiders. But in Meghalaya, things have gone topsy-turvy.”
He questioned why only KSU and a few other organizations were conducting checks on outsiders, asking “Where are the government departments that are supposed to do this? Why can’t the Government take responsibility on the issue of influx and on any issues related to protecting its people?”The Union stressed the need for functional check gates given that people deported as illegal settlers from Assam and West Bengal “may easily enter and settle in Meghalaya,” and also to check drug trafficking.
Through the release, KSU “strongly warns the Government not to convert the Facilitation Centre into a food court and to implement the MRSSA, 2016 immediately, if it truly cares for the people of the state.”
