Dual administration unacceptable : UCM

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Sep 22: The United Committee Manipur (UCM) has categorically stated that it would not tolerate any form of separate administration in any part of the State.
In line with the customary practice of Langban Heitha-Leitha, the UCM paid floral tributes to all the martyrs who laid down their lives to safeguard the integrity of Manipur and the sanctity of its territorial boundary at Kekrupat here today.
Speaking at the gathering, UCM president Joychandra Konthoujam decried that the quest for establishment of a separate administration for the hill areas when there is a Government for the whole of Manipur is quite disturbing and annoying.
Appealing to all the advocates of such separate administration to drop the idea, the UCM president asserted that it would not tolerate any type of dual administration within Manipur.  
No inimical force should try to divide the people of Manipur who have been living together since ages. Instead, all the communities must unite together and fight all challenges collectively, be it the border pillar   row or the border fencing issue, Joychandra said.
If the hill areas and the hill people are lagging in terms of development, everyone must join hands to bring uniform development and equality between the hills and the valley, he said.
The Bangkok Agreement of 1997 which extended the ceasefire between Government of India and NSCN (IM) without territorial limits literally put Manipur on fire, and many people paid with their lives to safeguard the integrity of Manipur.
It was the massive and sustained civil protest movement which ultimately forced the Government of India to remove the words ‘without territorial limits’ from the Bangkok Agreement, Joychandra recalled.