GUWAHATI: Mobile internet was restored in Manipur on Saturday, more than four and half months after the services were suspended on May 3 in the wake of ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis.
“…the Governor of Manipur is pleased to revoke all orders issued regarding the suspension of mobile data services…and hereby, orders the restoration of MMS over mobile service providers/mobile internet/data services in the territorial jurisdiction of Manipur normally with effect from 23-09-2023,” the state’s home department said in an order.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister N Biren Singh announced the restoration of mobile internet services.
“The state government had imposed a ban on internet services as a precautionary measure to thwart unwanted incidents. I am glad to inform the citizens of the state that from today onwards, the internet will be open to the masses,” Singh had told journalists.
On July 25, the state government lifted the “suspension of internet services on broadband (ILL and FTTH) in a liberalized manner subject to fulfilment of…terms and conditions.”
Singh said the state government’s priority is to stop the illegal influx of people from neighbouring Myanmar.
“For that, we need immediate fencing of the international border,” he said.
He also said that the Free Movement Regime (FMR) agreement, signed between the governments of India and Myanmar, has remained “closed”. He said the home ministry had closed it at the request of the Manipur government as checking illegal migration was difficult because of its presence.
FMR was signed in 2018 as part of the Act East Policy to facilitate the movement of people residing along the international border and encourage people-to-people contact. FMR allowed them to travel upto 16 km inside each other’s territories without a visa.
Meanwhile, protests had erupted in Imphal on Friday night when a youth was rearrested in another case soon after he and four others were released on bail. The five were arrested by the police last week for possessing weapons and donning camouflage uniforms.