Shillong: At least 10 pro-ILP activists were arrested after they tried to prevent tourists from visiting Sohra and Dawki in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills district, police said.
Tourist inflow to Sohra and Dawki was briefly affected on Friday when the pro-ILP activists belonging to Hynniewtrep National Youth Front (HNYF) tried to prevent some tourists coming from Assam from visiting these places.
"The district authorities have beefed up security arrangements for tourists intending to travel to Sohra and Dawki and security personnel have been deployed at specific locations along the route to prevent any disruption in tourists' visits," Superintendent of Police Sylvester Nongtynger told PTI.
"We have arrested 10 members of the HNYF at Umtyngar town for unauthorisedly preventing tourists from visiting Sohra and Dawki," he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong condemned the incident, saying, "It was very unfortunate. People are visiting Meghalaya to enjoy the nature. We will not let such things happen again." Tynsong, who is also the Home Minister, said that the law will take its own course.
The Hynniewtrep National Youth Front seeks implementation of the Inner Line Permit in the state.
HNYF president Sadon Blah said the group has called for such an action to force the government to implement a policy restricting the movement of tourist vehicles coming from outside the state.
Tynsong said the state government is aggressively following up with the Centre for implementation of ILP in the state.
Various tourism associations in Meghalaya strongly condemned the HNYF for its decision to prevent tourists from visiting Sohra and Dawki.
Speaking to reporters, Tourism Operators Association of Meghalaya president Banlum Blah said that they will write to the tourism minister to demand strong against such individuals who try to jeopardise the industry of the state.
Blah said that after the incident, various tourism associations in Meghalaya had called for an emergency meeting to discuss it.
"It was a surprise not only for the tourists but also for us as for the first time, we heard that tourists were being stopped and sent back," Blah said.
He claimed it took years for all stakeholders in Meghalaya to build up the tourism footfall that the state is witnessing at the moment.
He said the tourism sector is one of the biggest employment generators in Meghalaya and it has benefited hundreds of youths.
Blah said the incident that happened in Umtyngar has painted a bad picture of Meghalaya.
"From all the tourism associations of Meghalaya, we want to apologise to all the tourists who have been affected today. From the tourism stakeholders' side, we appeal to all the tourists to come back to Meghalaya as such incident will not happen again," he added.
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Thomas A Sangma also expressed regret that illegal checking conducted by pro-ILP activists for documents of migrant workers has led to a labour shortage.
He said around 200 labourers used to work at the construction site of the new assembly building but now the number has dipped to around 50-60.
"Yesterday, I paid a surprise visit to the site of the new assembly building to ensure that the work is going on smoothly and I am happy that the work is going on smoothly despite fewer labourers," he said.
"However, I feel that after the recent incidents, some of the contractors and labourers have disappeared and this has affected the pace of work," he added.
The speaker said that about 95-96 per cent of the work on the left and right wings of the building has been completed.
Another pro-ILP group, the Khasi Students Union, has in the last three weeks, sent back over 2,500 unregistered migrant labourers from construction sites across the state.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the state government has made it compulsory for migrant labourers to register themselves with the Labour Department under various sections of the Interstate Workmen Act 1979 and the Meghalaya Identification, Registration (Safety & Security) of Migrant Workers Rules 2020.
He, however, said that although registration is required for all migrant labourers, no individual or organisation is authorised to check their papers.