Checkpoint Surveillance Begins at Umling, Registration Made Compulsory for Tourists, Self-Drive Rental Cars Banned
Shillong, July 13: Entering the land of hills, waterfalls and clouds will no longer be as simple as buying a ticket. The Meghalaya government has announced that every tourist and non-resident entering the state must compulsorily register on the official Meghalaya Tourism App, and undergo identity verification at designated checkpoints such as Umling. Officials are calling this the “virtual Inner Line Permit,” or “virtual ILP” for short. In strict terms it is not a full, centrally sanctioned ILP but functionally, it has been built along very similar lines.
Registration is not the only measure. Strict rules are also being enforced for registering accommodation including hotels and home-stays and a ban is being brought in on the use of self-drive rental vehicles. The state government maintains that these steps are being taken with both tourist safety and the state’s internal security in mind.
Why This Decision
Several factors are understood to lie behind this plan.
1. Long-standing demand for ILP: Local tribal organisations and the state assembly have for years demanded a full Inner Line Permit regime. The aim has been singular to protect the state’s fragile tribal demographic balance from the pressure of outside inflows. But with central approval still pending, the state government has tried to achieve the same end through this “virtual” version, built under the 2016 Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act (MRSSA).
2. Concerns over border infiltration: The long, porous stretch of the Bangladesh border is a major vulnerability for Meghalaya. Officials say that strict document verification at checkpoints will make it easier to confirm whether foreign nationals hold valid visas.
3. Recent criminal incidents: Administrative activity picked up sharply after the honeymoon-murder case involving the Raghuvanshi couple. Government sources say the decision to mandate accommodation registration and ban self-drive rental cars was taken specifically to curb crimes committed under the cover of tourism.
4. Lack of visitor data: Until now, the state had no organised record of how many tourists were entering each day or where they were headed. The Meghalaya Tourism App and the checkpoints will now give the administration real-time data on visitor movement.
Not New: This Effort Has Been Going On for Years
This is not the first time Meghalaya has tried to introduce an entry-control system. Similar steps have been attempted repeatedly over the past decade, but have stalled each time because of legal hurdles, policy shifts, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Period | Step Taken | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | MRSSA Act passed | Focused mainly on tenant–landlord registration, not tourists |
| 2019 | Proposal for mandatory registration of anyone staying over 24 hours | Stalled for a long time awaiting the Governor’s and Union Home Ministry’s approval |
| 2020 | App-based registration during post-COVID reopening | Compliance dropped once the infection situation normalised |
| 2022 | MRSSA online portal launched | Rollout was sluggish; not all accommodation in the state came under it |
| 2026 | “Virtual ILP” and permanent checkpoint (Umling) | First attempt at building full, permanent infrastructure |
This latest effort is clearly far more organised than earlier ones a permanent checkpoint is coming up at Umling in Ri-Bhoi district, built in effect on the model of a traditional ILP checkpoint.
What ILP Actually Is
An Inner Line Permit is a time-bound official permit without which citizens from other parts of the country cannot enter certain protected areas. Four Indian states currently have this system in place Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Manipur.
The roots of this system go back roughly a century and a half. Under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation enacted by the British in 1873, an “Inner Line” was drawn so that traders from the plains could not encroach on the resources of the hills. The framework survived independence, but its purpose changed instead of protecting British commercial interests, it became a tool for safeguarding tribal communities.
The case for ILP rests broadly on four grounds: protecting tribal identity and culture; safeguarding land and economic rights; maintaining surveillance along sensitive international borders (with Myanmar, China, and Bhutan); and administrative continuity carried over from the colonial period.
The Demand to Scrap ILP: The Other Side of the Debate
There is, however, no shortage of disagreement nationwide over ILP. Where tribal organisations see it as the last wall protecting their very existence, a considerable section of people believe such restrictions on citizens’ movement within one country run counter to the idea of Indian integration.
Those who argue for abolishing ILP make the case that under the idea of “one nation, one citizen,” an internal permit requirement between two states under the same constitution should not exist; that it obstructs national integration and economic connectivity; that it hurts investment and tourism; and that it widens rather than narrows the distance between the Northeast and the rest of the country. Some also argue that in the digital age, holding on to this colonial-era structure has lost its relevance, especially when other technology-driven surveillance systems already exist.
On the other side, supporters of ILP point out that the tribal populations of these states are comparatively small in number, and that an unregulated inflow of outsiders raises the risk of local language, land ownership and culture being reduced to a minority within a short span of time. In their view, this protection is necessary in keeping with the spirit of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, and represents recognition of a special need within diversity rather than a symbol of separatism.
Meghalaya’s situation is somewhat different, though since it has not received full ILP approval from the Centre, the state government is trying to achieve much the same objective through a parallel, state-law-based framework, which itself leaves open legal and political questions.
It’s worth noting that the debate over ILP does not run in only one direction in some places there are calls to scrap the system, while elsewhere the demand is to introduce it. In January 2023, for instance, former national footballer and Hamro Sikkim Party leader Bhaichung Bhutia met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Kolkata and handed him a memorandum. It requested that Bhagwat recommend to the Centre that ILP be introduced in Sikkim, in the interest of national security and preserving the state’s demographic balance. The same memorandum also raised the demand for reserved assembly seats for the Sikkimese-Nepali and Limboo-Tamang communities. The episode makes clear that political organisations at the national level are regularly petitioned over ILP in some cases to withdraw it, in others to extend it.
What Comes Next
Once the Umling checkpoint is operational, the same system is likely to be extended in phases to the state’s other entry points. How much this affects a tourism-dependent economy, and which way Meghalaya’s experiment ultimately tilts in this long-running tension between tribal protection and citizens’ free movement, should become clearer over the coming months.
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