Curfew was relaxed for 14 hours in two police station areas in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong on Wednesday while the suspension of mobile Internet services remained in force for the past eight days, officials said.
There is no fresh trouble over the new Citizenship Act in the hill city for the past several days.
According to a district administration official, East Khasi Hills District Magistrate M.W. Nongbri on Wednesday issued an order relaxing the curfew for 14 hours from 6 a.m. in areas under Lumdiengjri police station and Sadar police station.
“As precautionary measures, the curfew would be reimposed in these two police station areas from 8 p.m. on Wednesday till further orders,” the official added.
All banks, shops and markets, educational institutions were open and vehicles were plying on the roads. Agitators protesting the amended Citizenship Act were planning to hold a prayer meeting at the Students’ Field here later in the day.
After protests against the new law, curfew was imposed in Shilling and its outskirts on December 11.
Another official of the Chief Minister’s secretariat said that the Cabinet meeting chaired by CM Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday had approved a resolution to bring the State under the Inner Line Permit regime.
“The Cabinet resolution would be moved at the one-day special session of the Assembly on Thursday,” the official added.
Mr. Sangma last week had led a delegation of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and demanded to introduce the ILP in Meghalaya.
“We discussed the ILP issue and other problems of Meghalaya with the Home Minister and he assured us with positive approach,” said Mr. Sangma, who is also the chairman of the MDA.
The ILP, which is now in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and in Manipur, was notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, to allow inward travel of an Indian citizen into a protected area for a limited and stipulated period. The new Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, would not apply to the ILP areas.
