HYC intensifies stir demanding ILP

From A Reporter
SHILLONG, July 27: A day after organizing black flag protest by pinning black flacks on local citizens and pasting black banners across the State city, the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) on Thursday staged a sit-in protest at Additiol Secretariat parking lot to pressurize the State Government to implement its 14-point demands that includes the implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) to check influx.
Around 30 members of the HYC took part in protest and displayed anti-government placards and banners, besides raising slogans like “We Demand ILP”, “No ILP No Rest”, “Dr. Mukul Sangma Down, Down”, etc. 
At the end of their sit-in protest, the HYC members took out pictures of all the Cabinet Ministers and started tearing them to shreds and disposed the shredded pictures in a garbage bin embedded with the picture of Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.
Addressing the members after the protest, HYC general secretary Robert June Kharjahrin said, “This protest is due to the silence of the State government and all its Cabinet Ministers. We will invite them for discussion on the 14-point demand on 29th July and, if they don’t show up, then we will have to spread word across the State that people should look for other representatives in the upcoming Assembly elections.”
Stating that the police department is provoking the Council members by arresting two of its members while they were observing the black flag day on Wednesday and later releasing them, he said, “When we are holding peaceful demonstration, we urge the police not to provoke us as there are more than 4,000 members with the HYC. And, if anything untoward happens, then the Chief Minister himself and police department will have to take full responsibility.”
Meanwhile, HYC president Peter Lawai said, “We will not accept the entry and exit points proposed by the State government to check influx because this will welcome more people from outside the State to enter freely into Meghalaya.”
He further said the HYC is not against the 13 pressure groups demanding proper mechanism to check influx, but the council is also opposed to the Meghalaya Residence Security and Safety Act and Meghalaya Bemi Transaction Act as both these Acts have no teeth.