Shillong, January 16 (IANS): Congress women workers in Meghalaya on Wednesday took out a protest march demanding the scrapping of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that was passed in the Lok Sabha. Initially, the Congress workers were planning to stage a protest in-front of the state's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters but the district administration has clamped Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which prevents the assembly of more than five people.
The women's wing of the state Congress shouted slogans and displayed placards, slamming the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government and demanding that the Bill should be scrapped immediately, saying that it will have an adverse impact on the future generation of the ethnic communities in the region.
"The Bill passed by the BJP government is to take away the rights of the indigenous people of Meghalaya and to crush and wipe them out," state's Congress women's chief Joplin Scott Shylla said.
Shylla also demanded that the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government headed by Conrad Sangma cut-off ties with the BJP over the Bill that aims to remove hurdles for eligible migrants of six minority groups from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan from getting Indian citizenship.
Meghalaya CM to meet Modi on Saturday
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday to discuss the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, and the coal issue. Sangma would leave for Delhi on Thursday and his first interaction is scheduled with Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday."The Home Minister has given us an appointment to meet him on Friday. We are expecting to meet the Prime Minister on Saturday," Sangma, who will be leading a delegation said "We will express the concerns of the citizens of the state and the Northeastern people as a whole," he said.
The CM said the delegation would discuss several issues including exempting Meghalaya from the purview of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, Coal Mines Nationalization Act, 1973, and the National Games 2022. The Meghalaya cabinet has already passed an official resolution opposing the Bill.
