The student body asked the Centre to not view it as a humanitarian problem but a security problem. Time has come to deal with it assertively with renewed and effective bilateral relations with the neighbouring countries, it stressed.NESO suggested the extension of the “Inner Line Permit” (ILP) system to the whole of Northeast. An offshoot of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, ILP is an official travel document that an outsider is required to carry while visiting the “protected” states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh for a limited period.Further, NESO urged the Centre to prepare a register of citizens. It demanded the early resettlement of Chakma and Hajong refugees of Bangladesh at any place outside the Northeast. These refugees are settled in Arunachal.“…it is observed that their prolonged settlement and the initiative of the Government of India to grant Indian citizenship and voting rights to these refugees has been strongly resented by the indigenous people of the state as it has not only created demographic imbalances but a serious political implication,” NESO wrote in the memorandum.The other demands include “special constitutional safeguards” for the indigenous people of Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam; and constitution of a “special commission” to undertake extensive revision of electoral roll aimed at detecting and deleting the names of foreigners and illegal immigrants within a stipulated time.
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