HANM pulls down railway pillar in Jaintia Hills: 'No ILP, no railway'

The Hynniewtrep Achik National Movement (HANM) on Saturday pulled down a pillar put up by the Northeast Frontier Railway at Lad Sohkymphor in East Jaintia Hills, saying it would not accept a railway line in the region until the Inner Line Permit (ILP) is in place, Syllad reported.

"Give ILP first, then we can talk about the railway," HANM president Lamphrang Kharbani said after the action, summing up the group's position as "No ILP, No Railway".

Influx fears

Kharbani said indigenous communities already feared becoming a minority in their own land even without a railway link. He pointed to places such as Lad Rymbai, Pynthor, Khyndai Lad and Shalang, where he said demographic change had sharpened those fears.

He said the ILP demand was about protecting land and the future of coming generations, and warned that HANM would dismantle railway infrastructure if work went ahead without safeguards. He urged the Centre and the Meghalaya government to bring in protective laws before going ahead with the project.

Kharbani acknowledged that a railway could bring down the cost of goods and make travel easier for students who study outside the state, but said those benefits could not come at the cost of indigenous rights.

Banners at the CM's gate

On the same day, HANM's East Khasi Hills unit put up protest banners across Shillong, including at the gates of the Chief Minister's residence. Unit president F Jarain said the protest was meant to remind the government of three commitments it has not kept: the ILP, the relocation of Them Iew Mawlong, and the Assam-Meghalaya boundary dispute.

Jarain noted that the Meghalaya Assembly passed resolutions supporting the ILP in 2018 and 2023, with all 60 MLAs backing it, and said HANM had taken the issue to Delhi twice without result. He also questioned why street vendors faced action while the Them Iew Mawlong relocation remained unresolved, and accused the government of failing to keep its promise to settle the boundary dispute after the Assam elections.

Background

The ILP, already in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur, requires outsiders to obtain a permit to enter. Several Khasi-Jaintia pressure groups have long linked any railway expansion into the hills to its introduction in Meghalaya, and earlier railway projects in the state have been stalled by similar protests. No response from the railway or the state government to Saturday's action had been reported at the time of writing.