GUWAHATI: A joint delegation of several civil society organisations from Manipur will meet senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in New Delhi on Monday to pursue multiple long-standing concerns, including the security of farmers in conflict zones and the resettlement of displaced communities.
The issues on the agenda include protection of Manipur’s territorial integrity, reopening of highways, security for farmers and their farmland, and the resettlement and rehabilitation of people displaced by the ethnic violence that broke out in the state in 2023.
The organisations part of this delegation are the All Manipur United Clubs Organisation, Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), and the Federation of Civil Society Organisations.
COCOMI convenor Khuraijam Athouba told this newspaper on Sunday that this would be a follow-up to its earlier meeting with the Centre. This time, however, the groups will make a joint representation.
“We will meet the officials of MHA. This will be a prelude to our meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He will take the final decisions on the matters. Tomorrow’s meeting is a preparation of that,” Athouba said.
“We will discuss issues including the security of farmers and their farmland, opening of highways, resettlement of the displaced people etc,” he further stated.
He added that they were expecting a positive response in the form of concrete actions from the government.
Farmers with agricultural land located in the peripheral regions of the Imphal Valley, bordering the Kuki hills, have frequently come under attack during the ongoing ethnic conflict.
The latest such attack occurred around a week ago when a Meitei farmer was injured after being shot at by an unidentified assailant in Bishnupur district. In a subsequent operation by security personnel, an elderly Kuki woman was killed in crossfire in Churachandpur district.
The ethnic conflict has led to an internal partition of Manipur, severing physical contact between the Meitei and Kuki communities. Even more than two years after violence first broke out on 3 May 2023, Meiteis are unable to travel to Kuki-dominated areas, and Kukis similarly remain cut off from the Meitei-majority Imphal Valley.
The conflict has claimed over 250 lives and displaced around 60,000 people. A large number of these displaced persons continue to live in relief camps across the state.