After Honeymoon Murder Case, Meghalaya To Tighten Residents' Safety And Security Law

The Meghalaya government today decided to revisit the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act (MRSSA) in light of the recent murder of a businessman from Indore in the tourist hotspot Sohra.

The aim is to further strengthen the law to better prevent criminal activities carried out under the guise of tourism. This decision reflects our commitment to ensuring the safety and security of residents, while continuing to welcome genuine tourists to our state, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.

The state government on Friday took stock of the situation and resolved to revisit the MRSSA, 2016 to tighten safety mechanisms and close existing gaps.

"Yes, the cabinet today decided to revisit the MRSSA, which is already an existing state law, to add more teeth to it in view of what we have just experienced at Sohra and to ensure that we minimise the possibility of criminal elements entering Meghalaya in the guise of tourists," cabinet minister Paul Lyngdoh told reporters.

While acknowledging the persistent demand for an inner line permit (ILP), Mr Lyngdoh said the matter now rests with the Union Home Ministry.

"As far as the ILP is concerned, let me remind you that the state assembly has already adopted a resolution. The matter is pending before the MHA, which has a number of queries, which we as a state government are trying to address," he said.

"Some of these queries relate to the fact that Meghalaya is not an endpoint. We are also connecting the rest of the northeast like Silchar, Mizoram and Tripura," he added.

Despite ILP status being uncertain, Mr Lyngdoh emphasised that the state already has safeguards under the MRSSA framework.

"If you go through the MRSSA, there is already a lot that is already in place, but we need to upscale and further improve upon what we already have in this law. So we will come up with a formal proposal," he said.

On tourism surveillance measures already in place, Mr Lyngdoh said, "We already have a tourism app, which records all movements of tourists, including cars or whatever mode of transport they use, and also compulsory registration of all visitors at homestays, resorts, and hotels. Now, the use of this app is roughly around 50 per cent, but we will now make it compulsory that all homestays, resorts, and other places of accommodation should register all visitors, mandatorily," he said.

He underlined the objective of revisiting the Act.

"MRSSA is our version of what we would like to do in order to ensure the safety of all residents of Meghalaya. But as I mentioned, we would like now to revisit the act in order to plug whatever loopholes are currently in it, and give it more dynamism and more thrust with whatever has happened at Sohra so that we ensure that we have an atmosphere that is safe and we continue to be tourist friendly."

Despite the recent episode, Mr Lyngdoh said tourism activity in Sohra has not been affected.

"As we speak, the footfalls at Sohra itself are increasing. There are more and more visitors. Even when the case was still not solved, the footfall was still the same. Now with the name of Meghalaya being vindicated and cleared, we are only seeing a great attraction, more footfall. And we expect that this would touch 20 lakh by the Cherry Blossom Festival."

The minister also spoke about improving infrastructure for tourist services.

"They're all active. In fact, the one that we have in Shillong will be shifted to the MTC building in order for us to gain more space."

To enhance engagement with visitors, the government is preparing to appoint young people under the Tourist Buddy scheme.

"We have issued a notice calling for interested young people who are fluent in Khasi, Garo, English, and Hindi, to join the tourist buddy scheme and within the next two months, we should be able to clear the appointment of 100 tourist buddies," Mr Lyngdoh said.