Reintegration with Manipur impossible: UPF, KNO tell MHA

KANGPOKPI, Dec 13
Kuki-Zo armed groups under the Suspension of Operations (SoO) framework on Thursday firmly told the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that reintegration with Manipur is no longer possible, reiterating that the creation of a Union Territory with a Legislature remains the only constitutional and viable solution to the protracted crisis in the State.
The assertion was made during the second round of tripartite talks held in New Delhi between the MHA, representatives of the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the United People’s Front (UPF), and officials of the Manipur Government.
Discussions, according to a joint statement issued later, centred on land rights, governance failures, and the post-May 3, 2023 situation in the hill areas.
The Kuki-Zo delegations were led by senior leaders of the KNO and UPF, while the Centre was represented by the Government of India’s Security Advisor for the North East. A senior official participated on behalf of the Manipur Government.
During the talks, the Kuki-Zo groups asserted that tribal land in Manipur’s hill districts is historically and customarily vested in village chiefs, forming the cornerstone of hill governance. They alleged that this foundational principle has been systematically eroded by successive State Governments through policy inter- ventions that undermined customary institutions.
The groups argued that a Union Territory with a Legislature alone could offer a constitutionally consistent governance framework capable of protecting traditional land rights and ensuring neutral administration.
Terming the current impasse an existential crisis rather than an administrative dispute, the KNO and UPF said the complete physical separation of populations since May 3, 2023, coupled with the alleged weapon-isation of State machinery against tribal citizens, has irreversibly fractured relations between the Kuki-Zo people and the Manipur Government.
“Reintegration under the existing State administrative framework is no longer possible,” the statement said, asserting that the ground reality has rendered the pre- sent arrangement untenable.
The groups further contended that the 2023 vio- lence was not an isolated eruption, but the culmination of decades of alleged aggressive land policies and political coercion aimed at dispossessing tribal communities of their ancestral lands.
Only a Union Territory Legislature, they maintained, would have the authority and neutrality to arrest this long-standing process.
Raising concerns over the period preceding the violence, the Kuki-Zo groups accused the Manipur Government of running a sustained vilification campaign, branding indigenous villagers as “encroachers” and “illegal immigrants” to legitimise eviction drives in the hill areas.
The delegations also alleged that administrative boundaries between the hills and the valley were deliberately diluted, citing executive orders, including those issued in June 2011, which extended the jurisdiction of valley-based police stations into hill sub-divisions.
This, they claimed, placed Kuki-Zo security in the hands of the alleged valley-centric forces during the May 2023 violence, worsening the community’s vulnerability.
On land administration, the KNO and UPF accused valley-based sub-registrars of illegally registering land deeds in hill districts, creating overlapping jurisdictions across hundreds of villages.
Such actions, they said, violated the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960, and subverted the authority of the Hill Areas Committee (HAC).
Both security and land records, the groups insisted, must be completely severed from the control of the Manipur State Government to ensure neutral policing, transparent governance and accurate, non-partisan land records.
Declaring that the social contract between the Kuki-Zo people and the State of Manipur has collapsed beyond repair, the statement said constitutional safeguards under Article 371C had failed in practice, with the HAC repeatedly bypassed and rendered ineffective.
“A people cannot be governed by a Government that has enabled their own ethnic cleansing,” the Kuki-Zo groups said, reiterating that the creation of a Union Territory with a Legislature is the only constitutional and viable path to justice, security, normalcy and lasting peace. The statement was jointly issued by the UPF and KNO.