Can I visit Nagaland with just a train ticket?
05 Sep 2020Article also published in Medium.
The title may seem a little weird in the first read but you’ll soon understand what I mean :).
In this article, we would briefly be discussing what exactly is Inner Line Permit.
Inner Line Permit is a document that allows any Indian citizen to visit or stay in a North Eastern state that is protected under the Inner Line Permit(I.L.P) system. The states that are currently included in the ILP System are Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram. Manipur was recently added to the I.L.P System.
An I.L.P document looks like this (as shown below):
I.L.P doc for Nagaland (Source: Pdfiller)
One can issue their I.L.P passes from the respective state government websites in online mode. It can even be obtained in offline mode. For example, to get an I.L.P pass for Nagaland, visit here.
Now the question arises, When was the I.L.P Act passed?
Well, this has a relation with the colonial era in India. The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act was passed in 1873. This Act gave the power to Britishers to regulate the entry and stay of outsiders in selected areas and limited the trading area of Indians. This Act is responsible for the existence of the I.L.P Act.
Recently (in 2020), the Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed by the government which grants access to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to obtain Indian citizenship.
The public has shown their disinterest in the bill as it indirectly threatens the existing culture in the states of India. It would also bring in resistance to the already existing I.L.P Act as North-Eastern states like Mizoram share borders with Bangladesh. This also led to long protests nationwide. By December 2019, the C.A.A bill was passed and it came into force from 10 January 2020!