GUWAHATI: The controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) now resonates in Manipur which shares a border with Myanmar.
Alarmed by the alleged influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Nepal besides Myanmar, 19 tribal organisations of Manipur urged the central government to set up “centres of operation” for the immediate detection and deportation of the foreigners.
In a joint memorandum, they urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to safeguard the genuine citizens of the state through the implementation of the NRC.
They said the immigrants had settled down “autonomously” in the state since the abolition of pass permit/permit system on November 18, 1950 by the then Chief Commissioner Himmat Singh.
“No discerning step was taken on the issue in the last 75 years under the Foreigners Act, 1946. This continuous influx and overflow has subsisted within us and taken possession of the socio-economic and political rights of the indigenous people,” the organisations wrote in the memorandum to Modi.
According to them, non-tribal immigrants from Bangladeshi and Myanmar occupied the Jiribam Assembly constituency and also got scattered in the Imphal valley. Likewise, they claimed, some lakhs of tribal immigrants from Myanmar and Lushai (Mizoram) settled down in the state.
“They have now counteracted ownership against the occupant indigenous people in hill areas,” the organisations alleged. They claimed the “Nepali” population also increased “tremendously”.
Manipur – largely a hill state – and Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh are protected by the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 or Inner Line Permit (ILP). The ILP is an official travel document that allows inward travel of Indian citizens from other states into these protected states for a limited period.
The tribal organisations said although ILP had been implemented in Manipur, the indigenous populace has not yet been defined. They were confident the Centre would identify the indigenous people, who trace their origin to the seven “Yek Salai” (homogeneity of clans), based on “autochthonous” of the land.
“They are the sole indigenous people of Manipur who habituated and belonged only to this state with records of pre-historic kings who ruled the Yek Salai kingdom,” the tribal bodies said.
They lamented that successive governments in Manipur did nothing although two agreements were signed in 1980 and 1994 for the detection and deportation of the immigrants.
“Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said on November 19, 2019 that NRC would be implemented throughout the country. In the light of this, we call for the implementation of NRC in Manipur to safeguard the genuine citizens. It is also our request to the central government to open ‘centers of operation’ for the detection and deportation of foreigners immediately,” the organisations further wrote in the memorandum.
So far, Assam is the only state where the NRC of 1951 was updated. Over 19 lakh people had failed to make it to the list.