Shillong: Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma said steps are being taken to check influx in the wake of publication of the National Register of Citizen's (NRC) first draft in Assam, and slammed the Centre for "trying to legalise the stay of migrants illegal by proposing amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955."

Mukul said the steps are being taken according to mandate of the law, including the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act, 2016, that has been passed by the Assembly as part of the comprehensive mechanisms to check influx and illegal migrants.

He said instructions have been given to all deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to deal with the issue. The director-general of police is also reviewing the situation.

After the first draft of the NRC was published in Assam on December 31, there is fear that illegal migrants, whose names did not make it to the list, might try to move out of Assam and settle in the neighbouring states of Meghalaya and Nagaland, among others.

The process of updating the NRC with March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date was initiated based on a Supreme Court order.

The Centre has not announced any concrete plan on the future of those who fail to qualify in the citizenship test in Assam. It is time to activate the local authorities and take care of the issue of illegal migrants," Mukul said.

States like Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram that share porous border with Bangladesh are vulnerable to infiltration.

The Meghalaya chief minister also voiced his protest against the Centre's move to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, by getting the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, passed by Parliament, to make illegal migrants from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship in India.

"This is not acceptable to the people of Assam, Meghalaya and the rest of the Northeast. If this act is amended, the whole fallout will be on the Northeast. Do you think those migrants from Bangladesh will go to Punjab, Kerela or Rajasthan? They will look at the Northeast as their destination," Mukul said.