Aizawl: Young Mizo Association (YMA), Mizoram’s largest and most influential civil society organisation, has adopted a resolution calling for stringent guidelines to regulate the management of refugees sheltering in the state and curb the activities of foreigners allegedly involved in illegal trade.Participants at a conference held in Aizawl on Thursday voiced concerns over the presence of more than 40,000 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh, as well as internally displaced people from Manipur. They also sounded an alarm over large-scale unregulated border trade, particularly along Mizoram’s porous international border with Myanmar.One resolution urged the YMA central committee to take up with the state govt the enactment of legislation to regulate trade and protect economic activities in Mizoram. Participants also called on the committee to strengthen the monitoring of inner-line permits (ILPs) at railway stations and other entry points in the state. ILPs are mandatory for members of non-tribal communities entering Mizoram.“The CYMA should continue to take up the issue of corporations and companies having offices and undertaking works in Mizoram to recruit more native workers,” a resolution adopted during the conference said. Another one included taking up the issue of protection of environment by units of the civil service organisation across the state and creating awareness about the Mizo value of respect for older persons.At present, YMA has 5,23,808 members with 831 units within and outside Mizoram.
