IMPHAL, July 22: The State government formed four-member Drafting Committee of a new bill to safeguard indigenous people of the State convened its first meeting today and resolved to complete the draft of the bill within a month`™s time.
Briefing media persons at the end of the meeting, Law minister Th Devendra, who is chairman of the committee said the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System has set a 15-day deadline for the preparation of the bill.
However, the drafting committee will appeal to both the government and the JCILPS to wait for atleast one month for the new bill, he said.
Today`™s meeting was convened at the Old Secretariate office minister.
Devendra said a meeting of representatives of the all political parties had already resolved to appeal to the JCILPS to extend the timeline to one month.
He said the JCILPS is an important stakeholder in preparing the new bill and it is hoped that it will fully co-operate with the committee and help in bringing out the bill.
He continued the committee will soon invite the JCILPS to meet with the committee at an opportune time so as to expedite the process of drafting the new bill.
It may, however, be mentioned that the JCILPS which is spearheading the ongoing movement had yesterday issued a statement showing annoyance at the failure of the State government to come up with any substantial step citing that six days of the 15 day deadline have already passed.
Devendro said in its first meeting today, the committee discussed paper-works of systems which are in place in some States of the country to protect the interests of the locals in their States.
He said documents of the present systems which are in place in States like Mizoram, Arunachanl Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh were thoroughly discussed and studied.
The committee will also invite expert stake holders including from the bar councils for suggestions, he said.
Devendra also informed that the next meeting of the committee has been fixed on July 25 at 4pm.
He said the committee would also like to discuss the demands of the JCILPS and compare them with the provision of the systems which are in place in the other States.
Although the committee wants the bill to be completed in a very short time, it is possible only if the JCILPS come to the table and discuss their demands with the committee, he said.
The JCILPS and the committee should seat together and chalk out with the committee the provisions which need to be either included or excluded from the bill, he observed.
He further appealed to the JCILPS to co-operate with the committee and bring an amicable solution to the issue so that the body of the student who died during the movement could be accepted by the family members and full focus could be put to drafting the ILP bill.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/07/drafting-committee-chairman-says-jcilps-cooperation-crucial-to-complete-bill-in-time/