Shillong, July 17: More than 2,500 labourers, who failed to produce ‘documents’, were pushed back by the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) in its work permit drive for the last 12 days.
KSU president Lambokstarwell Marngar said this on the occasion to observe the 189th death anniversary of U Tirot Sing Syiem who rebelled against the British Empire..
The KSU has decided to intensify the drive for the implementation of MRSSA and ILP in the state ignoring the action of the authorities against the Union.
“Over 2500 migrant workers are found to be working without valid documents. The question also arises whether they were Indian citizens or not, how many cases have the government filed against such illegal migrant workers without valid documents, and what action is being taken against contractors for violating the rules”, the KSU leader said.
“In fact, we are just trying to help the government to effectively implement the existing laws but we were instead alleged to be taking law into our own hands. The KSU along with other NGOs are forced to take action so that it will be a wakeup call to the state government,” Marngar said.
The KSU leader said that though the Chief Minister had said that work permit is not there, the state government had in 2011 came up with amendment of the Meghalaya Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Rules, 2011 for creation of 39 labour inspector posts to address the issue of influx.
“We have also seen The Meghalaya Identification, Registration (Safety & Security) of Migrant Workers Act, 2020 passed by the state government. There is a big confusion as we don’t know which one is right and which one is wrong,” he said.
“That is why we are saying instead of strengthening the existing laws, the government is attempting to do away with them. It has totally failed to implement existing laws. If we are not authorized to conduct checks then why is it that the government, which has the power to do so, is not doing anything on the matter? We have seen just recently; 6 Bangladeshi nationals were detected in Shillong and the question arises is how did they manage to sneak into our territory? This shows the weakness of the government and this is posing a serious threat to the indigenous community if it does not wake up from its slumber,” he said.
Marngar also criticised the state government for harassing members of the union by picking them up at night.
“When asked, police claimed that they got orders from above but we know that the instruction has come from the government. I just want to say here that being a minister or a public representative is not a permanent post, it’s only a five-year contractual post. Therefore, small people also have their own role to play and time will be the best teller of this,” he said.
“Therefore, we will decide other courses of action to be taken but the checking drive will continue despite government action,” he said.
