IMPHAL, Jun 8(IFP): The United Naga Council(UNC) has strongly oppose state government's proclamation of ANSAM and UNC presidents as 'Wanted' saying it was a design to criminalise the UNC for demanding justice for the tribal people.
An UNC statement issued today said state government's decision came amidst the Presidential Council meeting of the UNC which reviewed the economic blockade.
Asking state government to revoke the arrest warrant on its president, the UNC also served a five days ultimatum to Manipur government for action to be taken up on the matter. The UNC also warned of intensifying the blockade if state government failed to revoke the decision.
After outrightly rejecting the demands of the tribal people on the ADC election, the Government of Manipur is relentlessly trying to put into place district councils in the hill areas under the unwanted District Council(Hill Areas)Act, 2008 through a stage managed election process, the UNC statement said.
Instead of addressing the material issue at hand, the Government of Manipur has chosen to issue arrest warrants to the Naga leaders. This brazen action has followed an invitation for talks on the issue of ADC election and economic blockade from the Government of Manipur in the form of a letter from the chief secretary through the DC, Senapati addressed to the president UNC. The information on the invitation was received at 2.30 PM of the 26th May, 2010 on the day of polling for the 1st phase of ADC elections, when any talk on the issue has become impertinent and this response came after a lapse of over 3 month when the demand for reviewing of the Act was submitted to the state government, the UNC said.
In the meantime, decrying Manipur government's proclamation of UNC and ANSAM president as 'Wanted', the Naga Youth Front (NYF) said action of the O Ibobi Singh led government will worth nothing but will add more salt to the wound against the oppression on Tribal people specially the Nagas.
In a statement, the NYF said arresting Samson and David Choro will not solve the issue which have been compounded by Manipur government. It also said the Nagas have thousands of Samson and Choro.
Blockade worsens plight of common people in Manipur
IMPHAL, JUN 8:
Government agencies, businessmen, militant outfits, transport operators etc. are seem to have not extending sincere efforts in relieving the hardships experienced by common people owing to the prolonged imposition of economic blockade in Manipur. At the start of the ferrying of goods on NH-53, collection of taxes by both police and suspected underground activists started at Jiribam adding another burden on the head of the truckers.
Some miscreants identified themselves to be activists of "U" started collecting money from the truckers on NH-53 at Jiribam. By "U", the public said it was the UNLF but truckers could not confirm whether it was UNLF or other outfit.
Trucks stranded at Goladhon of Jiribam on the stretch of the NH-53 were asked to pay Rs 1000 each by youths who claimed themselves to be activists of "U", said a driver among the stranded trucks.
"They appeared yesterday and insisted us to pay Rs 1000 and took away keys of the vehicle for those who refused to pay the money. They also asked us to deposit the money to the office of the Sales Tax office at Jiribam," a driver disclosed.
Tension erupted among truckers as they were stranded for many days only to ferry the essential goods upto Imphal, he said.
Police also started collecting money from trucks at Jiribam at two points, one at the entry at the border gate between Assam and Manipur and another in front of the Jiribam police station on the side of NH-53.
Earlier, they used to levy Rs 50 at the check post as entry fee but with the increase of trucks crossing the gate, they hiked the amount to Rs 200 per truck.
Assam police at its border at Jirighat also followed suit and hiked the amount. When drivers enquired about the hike, they were reportedly told that if Manipur can hike the amount, so can they.
On the other hand, the freight charges of goods per truck from Silchar to Imphal have also sky rocketed to Rs 55,000 per load at present. The freight is triple times compared to that of freight charge from Dimapur to Imphal on NH-39..
The freight charges of goods have been hiked owing to the demands of freight trucks and with the increase of arrival of Imphal bound goods consignments from other places, truckers said.
Interestingly, the fare for ferrying fertilizers, the most demanded item in Manipur was also hiked up many-fold. According to the drivers, the freight charge from Guwahati to Imphal has crossed above Rs 1 lakh.
In the meantime, some businessmen are allegedly trying to ferrying other goods like cement and iron even though state authorities have asked to escort only the trucks with essential commodities like grocery items, fertilizers, petroleum product careers.
Crisis-hit Manipur to import rice from Myanmar
Surajit Khaund
GUWAHATI, June 8 (AT): To overcome the food crisis due to the economic blockade called by various Naga groups, the Manipur Government will import 1000 MT of rice from Myanmar.
Manipur Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) which is engaged in promotion of small-scale industries and border trade, has been asked by the State Government to import the rice.
"We have submitted a proposal to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and we are waiting for its green signal," highly-placed sources told this correspondent today. They further added that last year drought had severely affected rice production in the State and therefore the Government decided to import rice from Myanmar to meet the daily demand.
An indefinite economic blockade enforced by various Naga tribal groups to protest the Manipur government's decision not to allow separatist leader T Muivah to visit his birthplace has literally brought the state to a halt.
According to available statistics, Manipur produces nearly 5.18 lakh MT rice annually against the demand 6.21 lakh MT. But last year the State produced only 2.50 lakh MT.
To speed up the process of rice import, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between North East Federation of International Trade (NEFIT) and Union of Myanmar Border Trade Chamber of Commerce, Tamu and Kaley at a meeting in Manipur recently.
Providing feedback on the MoU, M Chandra Kishore Singh, vice president of NEFIT informed that Myanmar Government was keen on expanding trade ties with the North-east. "U San New Win, Director of Myanmar Border Trade who was present at the meeting laid emphasis on increasing bilateral trade by way of involving traders of both the nations," he said.
It may be recalled that the Commerce Ministry has already granted permission to the Manipur Government to import 50,000 MT of rice from Myanmar annually. Myanmar is said to be the rice bowl in Asia and its three varieties-ayemin, sanshei and pasan are very popular in Manipur.
Singh informed that Indo-Myanmar border trade was still in the nascent state due to poor participation of the North East traders. "Though Myanmar is a big market for the North East traders, we are yet to reap the benefit. To create awareness among the traders, we are going to organise meets across the region soon," he said.
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