Shillong/Guwahati: Notwithstanding his proposal to introduce work permits for Bangladeshi workers in Meghalaya , chief minister Conrad Sangma has said his government will “look into” a demand for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system in the state.Members of the Hynniewtrep Youth Council , a breakaway faction of the influential youth body Khasi Students’ Union , met the chief minister on Tuesday and submitted a charter of demands, one of which was the introduction of ILP, to protect indigenous people. Other demands include residential permits for immigrants and visitors, trading and business permits for non-indigenous people, prohibition and detection of benami transactions and a National Register of Citizens (NRC), like the one being updated in neighbouring Assam In the first week of April, the chief minister met external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and proposed a work permit system for Bangladeshis to regulate the entry of migrant workers. The storm that followed caught him unawares. “I don’t know why this is a contentious issue,” Conrad told TOI. “India and China have trade relations, they are our biggest trade partner. There is no problem with immigration,” he said.In neighbouring Assam, the same proposal by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2001 had not gone down well with the people either. Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who has been vocal in his criticism of the idea, told TOI, “In a country where the population is low, work permits can help the economy—like the UK or Germany. In India, we have not been able to provide jobs to our people. Meghalaya has not been able to get its employment figures up either. Then why would they need work permits?”On March 23, the Centre decided to ease the rules for entry into areas under the Protected Area Permit (PAP) regime, one of which was Arunachal Pradesh. The move caused quite a stir and was met with stiff opposition. In October last year, student bodies in Nagaland were up in arms, demanding a revised, more stringent Inner Line Permit system to keep Bangladeshis out. With the exception of Dimapur, the rest of the state is a protected area. Besides these two states, Mizoram also comes under the ILP system. In Manipur, where no such system is in place, protests have been on for years now in demand of an ILP-like regime for the state. Meghalaya’s neighbour Assam has also been grappling with the migrant issue, which invariably refers to Bangladeshis, for decades now.Parties like Asom Gana Parishad in Assam and United Democratic Party and Hill State People’s Democratic Party in Meghalaya have won elections on the issue of migrants. Violence and deaths have followed. Of the 4,097-km border that India shares with Bangladesh , a 262-km stretch is in Assam while Meghalaya shares 443 km. The terrain and riverine stretches make it difficult to monitor border areas thereby making it easy for migrants to cross over without getting detected.In India, work permits, or employment visas, are granted to skilled foreign nationals with a minimum annual salary of $25,000. These permits are valid for a period of five years. With the northeast positioning itself as a gateway for trade with southeast Asia, an exchange of skills and resources is bound to happen. “We need to think of ways to ensure that we get maximum economic benefit and at the same time are able to protect our people,” Conrad said.

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