Won’t Withdraw Manipur Blockade if No Separate District, Says Sadar Hills Panel

By Bijay Sankar Bora

Guwahati, Oct 7 : Even while an unrelenting economic blockade has crippled life in Manipur, the agitating Sadar Hills District Demand Committee (SHDDC) has told Union Home Minister P Chidambaram that it would not withdraw the blockade unless its demand for a separate district is met.

In a memorandum to Chidambaram, the SHDDC has alleged that the state government of Manipur had failed to respond to the instructions of the Home Minister for an early settlement to the Sadar Hills issue.

Chidambaram had stated that the issue should be solved by the state government and that the Manipur Government had constituted a district re-organisation commission to look into the issue.

However, the SHDDC has stated that Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has constituted a Committee on Re-organisation of Administrative and Police District Boundaries (CRA&PDB) in total disregard to the demand of the people of the Sadar Hills.

It said that the Manipur administrative boundaries had never been an issue or under question during the past 39 years, but a committee on the re-organisation of district boundaries was constituted as soon as demand for a separate Sadar Hills district was raised.

Meanwhile, various organisations of Manipur have submitted their representations to the CRA&PDB which will be brought up during the third round of the committee’s public hearing to be held tomorrow.

According to an official source, the organisations which have submitted their representations include Tonjei Marin District Demand Committee, Naga Peoples Organisation, United Committee Manipur, Committee on Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur and Saikul Area Naga Peoples Organisation.

The CRA&PDB headed by the state Chief Secretary was constituted following a Cabinet decision in order to bring an amicable solution to the various demands for separate districts in the state, including the demands for separate Sadar Hills district, Tonjei Marin district and Jiribam district.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Centre and the Manipur Government of failing to check the spiralling prices of essential commodities precipitated by the economic blockade and demanded an explanation in this regard. 

Source: Tribune News Service