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Manipur : UCM accuses elected leaders of betrayal

	September 05, 2005

Angered over the presence of five elected representatives of Manipur at the Naga solidarity rally in Kohima last week, the United Committee of Manipur (UCM) that led the violent June 2001 uprising in the valley has described their act as a “betrayal that must not go unpunished.”

Independent Lok Sabha member Mani Charenamei and four Naga MLAs Wungnaoshang Keishing of the Congress, Henry Paotei and Samula Jendai of the Federal Party of Manipur and BJP member Denny Shaiza spouted pro-integration rhetoric at the rally, even threatening to resign from the Assembly if the community’s aspiration to live together remained unfulfilled.

The UCM said such statements were a negation of Manipur’s efforts to protect its territorial integrity in the face of the Naga campaign for the integration of all contiguous Naga-inhabited areas, including parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

The political parties to which the elected representatives belong should take action against them for standing up against the numerous resolutions adopted by the Manipur Assembly to safeguard the state’s territorial integrity, UCM publicity secretary Joy Chingakham said in a statement.

Manipur has been consistently intolerant of the Naga community’s continuing campaign for integration.

But Charenamei, who has been openly supporting the Naga movement, said there was nothing unconstitutional about expressing solidarity with those upholding his community’s cause. He said acceding to the Nagas demand was one way of restoring peace in the troubled region.

The UCM was obviously not convinced by the Outer Manipur MP’s argument. “The MP is not only representing the Nagas. He is also representing the Kukis, Meiteis and Meitei Pangals (Manipuri Muslims). Therefore, his open support to a particular community is an attempt to trigger an ethnic flare-up in Manipur”, the organisation said.

The CPI, a partner in the Okram Ibobi Singh-led Secular Progressive Front coalition, was equally critical. Elected leaders of Manipur should not demand a break-up of the state that has elected them. People should be wary of such elements, Agriculture Minister Pheiroijam Parijat said without naming either Charenamei or the four MLAs.



Delhi nod to highway expansion

The Union Surface Transport and National Highways Ministry has asked the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to speed up its efforts to develop the crucial 260-km National Highway 53. N.K. Singh, Commandant of the 36 Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) under the BRO, said that Delhi had cleared a slew of short and long-term plans of the task force to keep the NH 53 traffic-worthy all through the year. He added that the schemes for upgradation would include converting, in phases, the highway into a double-laned road, rebuilding at least 21 damaged bridges along it and improving the over-all riding quality.

The short-term schemes, pegged at nearly Rs 9 crore, will focus on rebuilding the portions that have been badly damaged in the last few years when the roads maintenance suffered because of militant activity along the highway.

Singh added that the first phase of double-laning the 55-km stretch between Makru and Jiribam would cost Rs 55 crore. In the second phase, the widening of the road will be carried out between Barak and Makru, a distance of about 41 km.

The necessity to upgrade the highway, which had been almost closed to traffic for the past seven years because of militant activity, was felt during the recent 52-day economic blockade imposed by Naga students in Manipur on the other road to Imphal, NH 39. Though the distance between Lower Assam and Imphal gets increased by 100 km while travelling via first NH 44 and then NH 53, the truckers are preferring it as an alternate route to Imphal. More so because NH 53 is now under the hawk-eyed surveillance by army, paramilitary forces and Manipur police. As a result, the militants are being kept at bay.

The blockade forced the Centre, in course of an inter-ministerial meeting in New Delhi last month, to reach a decision to develop NH 53 as the principal road link connecting land-locked Manipur with the outside world, especially to ferry essential commodities.



HC moved on Manorama probe

In another development, Manipur has moved the Imphal bench of Guwahati High Court against a directive from a single-judge bench to hand over the C. Upendra Commission’s report on the Thangjam Manorama custody death case to Delhi.

The petition contends that the inquiry commission’s brief was to verify the circumstances that led to Manorama’s death in Assam Rifles custody and not to impinge on the powers, jurisdiction, privileges and liberty of the paramilitary force. It says there is no reason why the state has to hand over the inquiry report to Delhi when it is competent to take action on the basis of the findings.

On June 23, the single-judge bench of Justice D. Biswas asked the Manipur government to hand over the probe report to Delhi, which, it said, would examine the findings and take punitive action against any member of the Assam Rifles indicted by the inquiry commission.

The Manipur government constituted the Upendra Commission in the wake of an agitation over Manorama’s custody death. Troops of the Assam Rifles, who were then staying at the historical Kangla Fort, arrested Manorama from her Imphal East residence in the early hours of July 11 last year. Her bullet-riddled body was found about 4 km from her house the next morning.

The Assam Rifles claimed she had tried to flee and was shot dead in the process. The paramilitary force also insisted she was a member of the banned People’s Liberation Army.

Forensic examination of the garments Manorama was wearing at the time of her death revealed semen stains, strengthening the belief that she had been raped before being killed. The incident triggered a mass movement against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which gained in intensity after a dozen women protesters disrobed at the gate to the Kangla Fort in protest against excesses by security forces.