Staff reporter
SHILLONG:
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday confirmed that the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security (Amendment) Bill (MRSSAB), 2020 has been sent to office of the President of India for his assent.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma said that initially when the MRRSA came in, the Governor had discussed this matter with the Home Ministry.
“Therefore, in the recommendations given by the then Governor which was then of course resent again to us because we sent it back to the Governor and the new Governor again with the comments that was put in by the then Governor saying that this bill should be sent to the president for his approval and his consent and his comments accordingly through the governor secretariat. That file and that MRSSA bill has been sent to the president’s office,” he informed.
It may be mentioned here that the Governor Satya Pal Malik has reserved the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security (Amendment) Bill (MRSSAB), 2020 for assent of the President of India.
“The Bill is now awaiting the assent of the President of India,” Malik said in an interview on April 22.
The Governor had informed that he had accordingly sent back the MRSSAB, 2020 to the state government for necessary action.
On March 19, 2020, the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly had unanimously passed the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which seeks to regulate the entry of people and their stay as tenants in the state.
Meanwhile, sources said that it is now the duty of the state government to send the Bill to the Centre for assent of the President.
“The Governor has sought views from legal quarters and on that basis he has applied his mind. He wrote in the bill that it falls under the category of bills reserved for the President of India. The Governor is of the opinion that it is not within his powers to pass this bill, which seeks to stop people from other parts of the country from coming to Meghalaya so that kind of power is only vested with the President of India,” they said.
It may be mentioned that the MRSSAB, 2020 stressed on the need to verify and regulate the entry of persons to Meghalaya and also to regulate the tenants or any other persons residing in rented houses or any other places in the state apart from the existing provisions of the Principal Act.
The Bill said that every person who intends to stay in the state of Meghalaya for more than 48 hours shall furnish information in the manner prescribed under the rules.
It also maintained that “every persons” shall not be construed to mean persons who has been residing permanently in the state and includes his or her relative or members of family as defined under clause (i) of section 2 of the Act, Members of Parliament, Members of State Assemblies, members of judiciary, who is employed with state government or the union government, who is employed under a board, corporation, society, organization or agency, partly or wholly owned by the state or union government, professionals like medical practitioners, lawyers, chartered accountants, architects, attorneys, engineers, consultants by donor or funding agencies or any other professionals and any other category, class of persons, individuals, which may be notified by the government from time to time.
The Bill further stated that any person who willfully fails to furnish the information or provides false formation as required as per section 4A shall be liable to be punished under section 176 and /or section 177 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
“Provided that the first offense under this section shall be punishable only by imposition of a fine as provided in the Indian Penal Code, 1860,” it said.