The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisations, an umbrella body of pressure groups, has rejected the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, saying it does not exempt the entire state.

Confederation chairman Robertjune Kharjahrin on Friday said the proposed bill exempts only the tribal areas of Meghalaya, Assam, Mizoram and Tripura, covered by the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, and the states where inner-line permit system, as notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, is applicable, namely the three northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.

“The entire state of Manipur will be under the bill. The non-tribal areas of Tripura have not been exempted either,” Kharjahrin said, adding that the bill should not be passed.

He said while Meghalaya is not covered by inner-line permit, the ordinance to amend the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act, 2016, has still not received the governor’s assent. The ordinance seeks to make it mandatory for anyone who visits Meghalaya for more than 24 hours to pre-register themselves.

In the absence of proper safeguards, Kharjahrin claimed, “Meghalaya will become a safe haven for Bangladeshi nationals who will become Indian citizens through the proposed bill.”

He said another point of concern was the proposal to make applicants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians eligible for citizenship by naturalisation if they can establish their residency in India for five years instead of the existing 11 years.

“Under this clause, any Bangladeshi, belonging to any of the six communities, who came to India five years ago will become an Indian citizen. It is just a matter of five years and 2 crore Bangladeshis will become Indians,” he said.

Based on these reservations, the confederation has rejected the bill, Kharjahrin said and demanded that it should not be passed in Parliament.