10 Manipur MLAs bring UT demand to Delhi; seek PM’s help to end violence

New Delhi/Imphal: Reiterating their demands for a separate administration or Union Territory (UT) for tribals in Manipur, ten MLAs on Tuesday held a dharna in Delhi and later sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to stop violence in the northeastern state.

The 10 tribal MLAs, including seven BJP legislators, after the sit-in-protest at Jantar Mantar, in a jointly-signed memorandum, urged the Prime Minister that a separate administration in the form of a UT with a Legislature is the only solution to the ethnic strife in Manipur.

Strongly criticising the delay in political dialogue with the United Peoples' Front (UPF) and Kuki National Organisation (KNO) outfits, the ten MLAs said, “We condemn attempts to create divisions within our people by the proposals to discontinue the Suspension of Operations (SoO) with select armed groups.”

“The SoO agreement was aimed at resolving political issues and usher in peace, and it is against the very spirit of the agreement if the government is hesitant to extend the SoO with select armed groups within the SoO framework,” the memorandum said.

The UPF and KNO, which are a conglomerate of 23 outfits, signed a SoO with the government on August 22, 2008 and then there are 2,266 Kuki tribals who are supposed to have been staying in different designated camps in Manipur.

The Congress was in power in Manipur when the SoO was signed.

Ever since the ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3 last year, all Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal organisations and 10 tribal MLAs, including seven BJP legislators, have been boycotting the Manipur Assembly sessions and demanding a separate administration or Union Territory for the tribals in Manipur.

The Centre and the state government on a number of occasions rejected the separate administration demand.

The memorandum, submitted to the Prime Minister on Tuesday said, “Apart from the prolonged and chronic discrimination towards the hill districts in matters of development by the successive Meitei majoritarian state governments, it is sad to see the discrimination being worsened in this time of the conflict for the last 19 months.

“The Manipur government had failed to recommend and deliberately left out the affected hill districts for funding of Central financial assistance under ‘PM-DevINE’ for the project providing Super Speciality and Assured Speciality Health Care in remote and hill districts (Infrastructure and equipment) in Manipur.”

The 10 tribal MLAs urged the central government to make interim planning mechanisms and budgetary arrangements to fund the much-needed development projects in the districts predominantly inhabited by the tribals, pending final separation through a political settlement.

The 10 tribal MLAs’ protest was held a day after INDIA bloc leaders from Manipur on Monday held a similar sit-in demonstration at Jantar Mantar, urging the Prime Minister to visit the violence-hit state and resolve the 19-month-long ethnic hostilities at the earliest.

The leaders of the INDIA bloc, while addressing the gathering, claimed that both the Centre and the state government failed to resolve the ethnic crisis even as the lives of the people were devastated due to the uninterrupted violence.

Many Opposition leaders, including Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, Congress' Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi and CPI General Secretary, D Raja among others, participated in the protest.