RailEnquiry

Shillong : With alleged unabated influx looming over the Garo hills region, the Garo Students' Union (GSU) today announced that it would hold a series of agitations to press for separate electoral rolls for future elections to the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council. "What is happening now is that the authorities simply copy the electoral roll of the general election," president of the students' union, Tengsak G. Momin, told reporters at a news conference here. Unlike in the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) and the Khasi Hills autonomous district council (KHADC), even non-indigenous people in Garo hills are allowed to participate and contest as candidates in the district council polls. Stating that the Garo community had become a "minority", especially in the plains belt of Garo hills, Momin said during the monsoon around 6,000 illegal migrants enter the hills from across the international border. "When they enter, about 70 per cent of them attempt to stay on in the state while 30 per cent of them either return to Bangladesh or enter Assam and manage to get electoral photo identity cards . When illegal migrants get hold of the cards, there is no turning back," he said. He also came down heavily on the state government for its failure to register these people as refugees. "It has come to a point where these people even had the courage to demand a plains belt district," Momin said. He said the GSU would hold a series of agitations to step up pressure on the state government to implement different electoral rolls for the district council elections without non-indigenous voters and candidates. Khasi Students' Union (KSU) president Daniel Khyriem, who was also present at the news conference, asked the state government to expedite the recommendations of the all-party committee on the Election Commission's voter enrolment guidelines. "Before the state government submits its recommendations to the Election Commission, NGOs of the state should be kept in the loop about the report," Khyriem demanded. Talks on border: The KSU and the All Assam Students' Union, which met during the general council meeting of the North East Students' Organisation recently, had discussed the Assam-Meghalaya border row. The student bodies decided to write to their respective state governments and the Centre to resolve the border imbroglio at the earliest. NESO publicity secretary Samuel B. Jyrwa slammed the Assam government for allowing Nepali settlers to reside in the border villagers along the inter-state boundary, leading to frequent conflicts with indigenous people, especially at Langpih. KSU opposes rail line: The KSU president also said that the union was still opposed to the railway link as long as proper mechanisms to check influx in the state are not put in place. Reacting to the statement of their former leader Paul Lyngdoh that goods trains were required in the state, Khyriem said it was his "personal opinion". "We have always been opposed to a railway line in the state and will continue to do so until a proper mechanism is found to stop the unabated influx," he said. He said that the work permit system had not been properly implemented in the state. "So we (KSU) have decided to oppose a railway line until we are sure that foolproof mechanisms have been put in place to protect the indigenous people," Khyriem added.