With the National Register of Citizens being updated in Assam and the talk of introduction of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the Lotha Students Union (LSU) has urged the Nagaland government to promptly initiate reforms in the existing Inner Line Permit (ILP) system to effectively regulate and monitor the influx of immigrants into the state.
The union also wanted the state government to standardize the ILP regulation guidelines, to enforce stricter procedure to detect suspected illegal immigrants, to improve ease of ILP application and renewal for tourists and investors, to streamline ILP revenue collection process to ensure transparency and accountability and to maintain proper and accurate records through a secure online database system.
In a representation to chief minister Neiphiu Rio, the LSU said the ILP system at present is being “carelessly enforced with numerous loopholes enabling illegal immigrants to take advantage of the deficient system and enter the state illegally”.
The union also submitted a document containing “Reform Recommendations” with two types of reforms to the government for implementation.
In it, the students’ body suggested that the government enact fresh ILP guidelines for Nagaland, similar to guidelines for the enforcement of the inner line regulation in Mizoram (2006), with special emphasis on stringent scrutiny of applicants from “certain illegal Bangladeshi immigrants infested districts of Assam”.
It also asked the government to improvise the new ILP system with the latest open source technology to empower administration and police for effectively regulating and monitoring all immigration activity in the state and integrate with crime and criminal tracking network and systems (CCTNS) to enable the administration and police to check criminal record history of ILP applicants and guarantors.
The union further called for online ILP portal with online form for ease of application for tourists without any physical touch points and reporting dashboard for chief minister’s office, home department, police and administration to monitor the ILP applications and to analyze the immigration patterns into the state.