Leaders of the SHDDC, including its president Ngamkhohao Haokip and general secretary Tonghen Kipgen, have been camping in the national capital for the last few days to lobby with central leaders for early upgradation of the Kuki-dominated Sadar Hills to a full-fledged district.
On October 31, the SHDDC and the state government signed an MoU in which the latter assured the creation of the Sadar Hills district after the chief secretary-headed District Reorgnisation Committee (DRC) submits its report to the government.
With the signing of the MoU, the SHDDC suspended its economic blockade on the Imphal-Silchar and Imphal-Dimapur routes that began on August 1. On the other hand, the United Naga Council (UNC) has been imposing a similar stir on the same supply routes since August 21 to denounce the state government's alleged attempt to bifurcate Naga-dominated area to create new districts.
"Our position on the committee/commission was made very clear to the state government from the initial stage that it should not affect or alter, in any way, the existing boundaries of Sadar Hills," the SHDDC memo said.
The memo added, "Subsequent to the signing of the MoU, we have temporarily suspended all forms of our agitations including economic blockade along national highways till the end of November 2011."
"We believe that this gesture of ours will enable both the Union and state governments to prepare ground for the complete implementation of the said 1971 Act with respect to the Sadar Hills Autonomous District," said the memo, signed by top SHDDC leaders as well as legislator Thangminlien Kipgen, who is also the chairman of the hill areas committee, a statute body of the Manipur legislative assembly.
The SHDDC urged the Union home minister to give "clear but strong instruction" to the state government to inaugurate Sadar Hills as a full-fledged autonomous district before the end of the current month.
"We shall faithfully as well as hopefully wait to see how our 40-year-old grievance is redressed within November 2011, as already agreed upon, by the largest democratic country in the world," the SHDDC memorandum said.
"The Centre should repeal the said Manipur (Hill Areas) Autonomous District Council Act 1971 in case the state government fails again to grant full-fledged district status to Sadar Hills according to the principal objectives of the act and declare the Sadar Hills area as an 'un-administered region of Manipur', it added.
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