IMPHAL: Even as the demand for “separate administration” for the Kuki-Zo community intensifies in strife-torn Manipur, 23 Meitei legislators signed a resolution, pledging to protect the state’s territorial integrity.
“It is unanimously resolved by all the undersigned members of the Legislative Assembly that we would stand for the territorial integrity of the state of Manipur and that no form of separate administration will be agreed to by us,” the resolution read.
“It was also resolved that all members would be proceeding to Delhi soon to persuade the central leadership to bring a solution to the current crisis at the earliest,” the resolution further read.
The signatories had a meeting with the leaders of the newly-formed Youth of Manipur (YOM), a civil society organisation, at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on Monday night. After the meeting, they said the Kuki-Zo tribals’ separate administration demand was not acceptable to them.
The leaders of YOM told Chief Minister N Biren Singh that the state government should take legal action against all 10 Kuki-Zo legislators for raising a pitch for a separate administration.
Further, they demanded a special session of the Assembly to discuss this issue as well as the issue of implementation of the National Register of Citizens in the state.
The Kuki-Zo legislators had flagged the separate administration demand after the state was partitioned on ethnic lines in the wake of the ethnic violence. The Kuki-Zo tribals cannot enter the Meitei-majority Imphal valley. and similarly, the Meiteis cannot go out as arterial roads pass through Kuki areas in the hills.
Nearly 200 people lost their lives and several hundreds were injured since the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals -- Nagas and Kukis -- constitute little over 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts.