DONER responds to Kuki CSO’s request
Union ministry of Development Of North Eastern Region (DoNER) urged the Manipur government to examine development of a dedicated road corridor connecting the state’s hill districts, a demand raised by a Kuki-based CSO.
The DoNER ministry, in a letter to the Manipur government, asserted that the demand “may be considered as per the policy, need and priority of the state government.
Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM), in a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu on August 1 last, drew her urgent attention in the development of a dedicated road corridor in the hill areas of Manipur.
The KIM cited a humanitarian crisis in the hill areas caused by ongoing ethnic violence, economic blockades, and restricted movement since May 2023 as the reason for their urgent appeal.
In response to the memorandum, DoNER’s joint director Pausianmuang Tumglut wrote a letter to Manipur chief secretary on August 6, urging the state government to examine the proposal.
In the letter, the joint director requested the state government that “the proposal of development of a dedicated road corridor in the hill areas of Manipur may be considered as per the policy, need and priority of the state government.”
The KIM had brought up the proposal in the backdrop of strong opposition from the Naga-based CSOs on the construction of a road connecting the two hill districts – Churachandpur and Kangpokpi – without touching the valley areas.
The German or Tiger road the Kuki based CSOs proposed to construct on their own expense received a strong objection from the Naga-based CSOs as the proposed road has to pass through the inhabited areas of various tribes within the fold of Naga.
It was on this issue that the Foothill Naga Coordination Committee (FNCC) had recently imposed an indefinite bandh in the Naga inhabited foothill region.
The indefinite bandh prohibiting movement of any member of the tribes within the fold of Kuki, was, however, called off on Friday after an agreement was reached in a talk with the officials of the state government under the initiative of the state home department.
Interestingly, in a statement issued after the talk, the state government clarified that “it had neither approved nor sanctioned any such roads as pointed out by FNCC” while discussing the key issues raised by the committee (FNCC).
In the agreement, the state authority also assured that legal action would be taken after verification and reiterated that no illegal construction or naming of roads would be permitted.
On the other hand, the Working Committee Kuki CSOs suspended its day-old economic blockade on the NH-2 in Kangpokpi district in ‘public interest’ on Saturday. The calling of the economic blockade came close to the heel of FNCC ending its 20-day old indefinite bandh.
“Although after much delay and at the cost of tremendous hardship and suffering faced by the Kuki-Zo people, we acknowledge the intervention of the Hon’ble Governor of Manipur in opening the 20+ days of total communal blockade against the particular community of the Kuki-Zo people along our Kangpokpi/Kanggui A Lamka/Churachandpur lifeline,” the committee of Kuki CSOs said, in a statement calling of the strike.
In the widely circulated statement on the internet, the committee expressed its gratitude to the mature stand taken by the United Naga Council in ‘localizing the current issue and upholding humanitarian principles’.