The World Meetei Council threatened to resort to general strike for 72 hours from November 25, 2021 if the CM fails to send the reports by November 24.
TFM Desk
World Meetei Council has urged Chief Minister of Manipur to send the required necessary ethnography and socio-economic reports to the centre. The report is lying unattended with the state government since 2013, it added.
Asking the chief minister to send the necessary reports before November 24, 2021 positively, WMC said that If Manipur government do not attend to their genuine and rightful demand, they would be constrained to resort to democratic means of resistance. The council threatened to resort to general strike for 72 hours from November 25, 2021 followed by all forms of protests till justice is served.
Speaking to the media persons at a joint press conference of 16 CSOs in Inphal, WMC chairman Heigrujam Nabashyam stated that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India has called for the two reports from the Manipur government in 2013 and the report is yet to be submitted.
The Manipur Government is denying the Meetei its rightfulrepresentation of facts, this is completely unacceptable, he added.
Alleging that the Manipur government is extremely unfair with the Meetei community who are not rightful citizens of Manipur, the WMC chairman said Meeteis have the right to live only in the valley area of Manipur which constitute only 9% of the liveable area of Manipur. And the rest of Manipur is kept protected for the native indigenous people by the constitution of India, he added.
Claiming that Meetei andNagas are the two native indigenous people of Manipur, he asked whether this is not injustice done against the Meetei people. “It is extremely unfortunate that the Manipur government has been delaying and denying their natural and legal rights,” he added.
The WMC chairman further stated that as per Government. statistical data, Meeteis could be decimated in the next few decades. With the unchecked influx of illegal migrants from across the borders, Manipur’s demography has been greatly disturbed, he said. This has made all the more important to give due recognition to the Meetei as native indigenous people by enlisting them in the list of Scheduled Tribes, he added.
WMC warned that it would be left with no choice but to go to any extent to get justice for the Meetei people if the Manipur government continues to do injustice to the Meeteis as this is for our future and our children.
“WMC and all our CSO groups appeal to all the people of Manipur to bear with the difficulties because if this injustice against the Meetei is not stopped then Manipur could be in turmoil in very near future. And we are doing this for the good of all the people of Manipur,” said the chairman.