Shillong, Sept. 24: The Meghalaya government has decided to speed up the process of implementing work permits in a bid to curb influx.

The decision was taken at a Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) cabinet meeting on Thursday after reports that the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU)’s anti-infiltration drive in the state has led to alleged harassment of “genuine non-tribal citizens”.

This prompted the East Khasi Hills district administration to clamp Section 144 to prevent the KSU and other organisations from carrying frisking vehicles and searching areas for illegal migrants.

The work permits would be applicable to all migrant labourers coming to work in the state from outside. The government has asked chief secretary S.K. Tiwari to submit a report on the process.

Sources said Tiwari has been asked to submit his report by the coming week to allow the government to examine the scheme thoroughly before it is implemented.

The government has also asked the labour department to work out the modalities on “the present status of the labour force in the state”.

The sources said implementation of the work permit system would depend largely on the chief secretary’s report. The report is likely to stress the need to have a “transparent system,” to identify different categories of migrant labourers.

The chief secretary is said to be in favour of the recommendations made by the sub-committee that had been formed in 2004. The sub-committee had recommended introduction of “a three-tier identity card system,” to control the problem.

The committee recommended a similar identity card system with 1971 as the “cut-off” year to determine three categories of residents — permanent, semi-permanent and temporary.

Sources said Tiwari was examining the proposal of the sub-committee to make the work permit valid for 179 days only, to prevent migrant labourers from becoming permanent residents of the state.

After a high-level meeting held last week, the chief secretary had been given a month’s time to submit his report. Sources said the government now wants to issue the work permits in a couple of months, instead of the three-month time frame that it had fixed.