Time to show there is a Govt in place Imp-Ukhrul road cut off
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This is not acceptable and time to show there is a Government in place. Since the evening of May 3, 2023, the highway connecting Imphal to Dimapur and onward to Guwahati has remained off limits to the Meiteis. Likewise no Kuki-Zo people would deem it safe or secure to come down to Imphal International Airport and catch a flight to Guwahati or Delhi or Kolkata or to Mumbai. RIMS hospital and JNIMS hospital still continue to remain off limits to the Kuki-Zo people. This is the fact, but it is important for the Government to acknowledge the fact and not try to cloud the reality with some carefully chosen words or phrases. And for the last many days, since February 8, the Imphal-Ukhrul road has remained ‘cut off’ with no Tangkhul feeling safe or secure to take this route to either come to Imphal or go to Ukhrul district headquarters from Imphal. The alternative route takes at least 8 hours, generally a 3 hour journey otherwise. The other alternative is a chopper ride, but this comes with a fare tag of Rs 2500 on a one way trip. And at the most the number of passengers allowed per flight is 8 or 9. Students who need to come to Imphal for further studies at Manipur University, DM University, JNIMS, RIMS, NIT or any of the higher secondary schools need to book a seat for the chopper ride much earlier. Not clear how many flights are there in a week, but these chopper flights can or are cancelled whenever visibility is poor or when the sky opens up. In short the inconvenience faced by the people of Ukhrul and Kamjong districts is immense and this calls for the urgent intervention of the Government. Other than the personal visit paid by Deputy Chief Minister L Dikho when violence erupted in February this year, no one seems to know what course of action the Government has taken to open the Imphal-Ukhrul road. The Sangai Express has already had its say on how Litan and the adjoining villages have become home to several people, a situation which is vastly different from what it was back in the late 70s, the 80s and the early part of the 90s. This is where the Tangkhul folks need to wake up and come to the realisation that for far too long they have been living in a ‘make belief’ world of ‘ancestral land’. The need to study how the villages near Litan have expanded, geographically as well as in the number of population, needs to be studied closely and minutely. This is where the need to revisit the strong opposition to the decision to fence the extremely porous Indo-Myanmar border becomes all that more important. The decision to revamp the Free Movement Regime should also be studied and understood in its correct perspective, for the decision is to insert some provisions and not entirely do away with the FMR.
Revisiting or revising one’s earlier decision cannot and should not be equated with rolling back one’s decision. The need is to acknowledge the reality and accordingly act with the future in mind. What is happening from across the border is a reality and one just need to take a look at the manner in which new settlements have come up down the decades. As repeatedly stated, it is the Nagas who stand to be affected the most first due to unchecked infiltration from across the border and this reality should be acknowledged. Didn’t the UNC oppose the burial of a late scholar of the Kuki-Zo community in Senapati district on the ground that he was from Myanmar some years back ? That he was from Myanmar was filed in a report The Sangai Express received but edited it out, lest it kicked up a storm. Cut to the present, and it is disturbing to see that highways continue to be cut off at different points in Manipur. If the Imphal- Ukhrul road has become off limits to the Tangkhul people, then what does it say about the presence of a Government ? To many, at least to The Sangai Express the failure of the Government to open the said route has not come as too much of a surprise for the highway connecting Imphal to Dimapur has been off limit to the Meiteis since May 3, 2023.
Revisiting or revising one’s earlier decision cannot and should not be equated with rolling back one’s decision. The need is to acknowledge the reality and accordingly act with the future in mind. What is happening from across the border is a reality and one just need to take a look at the manner in which new settlements have come up down the decades. As repeatedly stated, it is the Nagas who stand to be affected the most first due to unchecked infiltration from across the border and this reality should be acknowledged. Didn’t the UNC oppose the burial of a late scholar of the Kuki-Zo community in Senapati district on the ground that he was from Myanmar some years back ? That he was from Myanmar was filed in a report The Sangai Express received but edited it out, lest it kicked up a storm. Cut to the present, and it is disturbing to see that highways continue to be cut off at different points in Manipur. If the Imphal- Ukhrul road has become off limits to the Tangkhul people, then what does it say about the presence of a Government ? To many, at least to The Sangai Express the failure of the Government to open the said route has not come as too much of a surprise for the highway connecting Imphal to Dimapur has been off limit to the Meiteis since May 3, 2023.