Centre will not impose ILP in Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma

GUWAHATI: The Centre will not impose Inner Line Permit (ILP) system in Assam, state finance minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said here on Sunday.
"There will be no ILP (in Assam). How can Assam have the ILP system...it can't. In fact, there is no proposal before the government for ILP in Assam," Sarma said.
The minister explained that enforcement of ILP in the state would only bring about 'negative development'. "How will people work in Guwahati? Assam's unemployment figure will increase three-fold if people cannot come to the tea gardens, the Oil India Limited, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, if investors and traders cannot come here. Assam is the gateway to the northeast. So how can there be ILP here?" he said.
Sarma added that even the Union home ministry (MHA) panel that has recommended ways to provide constitutional, legislative and administrative protections to the Assamese identity, has not made any direct reference to ILP in the state. The panel recently submitted its report to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who, in turn, forwarded it to Union home minister Amit Shah. "In my personal interaction with some members of the panel, I was told that the committee has made no direct reference to the ILP system for Assam," Sarma said.
The ILP system is drawn from the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR), a system of travel restrictions imposed by the British in 1873. At present, the system - which restricts the free movement of 'non-natives' in certain areas to protect the identities of the indigenous peoples - is in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.