While the district headquarter of Churachandpur is eight hours’ drive from Thanlon Sub-Division, it is hardly two hours’ drive to the district headquarter of Pherzawl district, the Northern Thanlon Chief Association argued.
TFM Desk
The Northern Thanlon Chief Association and Pherzawl District Development Committee came out strongly against the proposed “re-amalgamation” of Pherzawl district, where the inclusion of Thanlon Sub-Division into Churachandpur district is being purportedly proposed.
In a letter to the chief secretary of the Government of Manipur on Monday, the Northern Thanlon Chief Association expressed its desire to remain within the jurisdiction of Pherzawl district.
In this regard representations have been submitted to chief minister N Biren Singh on two occasions — December 2019 and September 2021 — and also to the Delimitation Commission of India, New Delhi in July, 2020, the association said.
While the district headquarter of Churachandpur is eight hours’ drive from the sub-division, it is hardly two hours’ drive to the district headquarter of Pherzawl district, it argued.
“We can no longer submit ourselves to the dictate of the Majority community. We hardly receive any development package and the whole area covered by the Northern Thanlon Chief Association remains unattended which in turn causes backwardness in all respects. We are treated like second class citizens and we are prevented from raising our voices.”
Stating that the association wants Pherzawl district to be a developed and inclusive one wherein different kindred tribes co-exist peacefully and also to do their best and contribute efforts to make the district as progressive as any other existing districts of Manipur, the association sadi, “we will not embrace or entertain any elements that attempt to sabotage this hope and will not accommodate the idea of partisan politics.”
On the other hand, the Pherzawl District Development Committee has submitted a representation to CM Biren requesting him to “protect Pherzawl district from disintegration”.
The committee maintained that the proposed “re-amalgamation” has no logic, except a design to dislodge and repudiate the inhabitants of the said District. To be specific, it is a target to uproot a particular community and leave it to wither never to rise up again on this planet earth. It is a design to disdain the Hmar and various tribes of the community, who populate the Pherzawl district, it added.
“If this move is ever honored and welcomed by the Government under your leadership, Honorable Sir, we’ll never forget and forgive it,” it asserted.
Urging CM Biren to respect its sentiments, the committee maintained that by disintegrating the present Pherzawl district, one community, Hmar community, will be “repudiated and sidelined”.
“We have no supporters. We have no political power. We have only you to save us from being the true sons and daughters of Manipur. If you even betray us, our future will be very bleak and dark,” the committee appealed to the chief minister.