TSL demands ADC polls before Shirui Lily Fest

Mungchan Zimik
UKHRUL, Jan 29 : The Tangkhul Shanao Long (TSL) has urged the State Government to conduct Autonomous District Council (ADC) elections before the Shirui Lily Festival or before the onset of the rainy season in the greater interest of the tribal people.
Speaking to this correspondent, TSL president Thingreiphy Lungharwo said the ADC elections is a must and necessary for installing local self-Govern- ment in the hill districts of Manipur.
She said, delay in ADC elections is deprivation of the democratic rights of the tribal people in the hill districts and is not fair.
The hill people’s Constitutional franchise right is being kept in abeyance with the State Government failing to conduct the ADC elections in time, she added.
The citizens of the hill districts are without grassroot governance for more than two years after the last Councils were dissolved. The people want elections at the earliest, preferably before the Shirui Lily Festival.
The All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur (ATSUM), the apex body of tribal students’ bodies, has been demanding the Government to hold the elections at the earliest, she continued.
Thingreiphy also mentioned that 50 percent of the population in Ukhrul district are women, and it is their right to demand elections without further delay to restore local self-Government.
Meanwhile, when this correspondent spoke to some prominent social leaders of the town, they alleged that it is the “failure” of the HAC (Hill Areas Committee) Members to safeguard Article 371(C), and the “silence” of the tribal MLAs that has stalled the elections and paralyzed the ADCs.
There has been “little” development in the hill areas as there is no local self-Government, said the social leaders.
This should be a walk-up call for the leaders and the people alike. ADC elections should be held at the earliest, they said.
Earlier the Ex-ADC Members’ Forum of Manipur had on December 28 last year apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold elections to the Autonomous District Councils in Manipur without further delay.
The forum had also submitted a memorandum to this effect to the Prime Minister in New Delhi on December 22.
The Forum had also urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to get the ADC election held as soon as possible.
The Forum held that the six Autonomous District Councils of Manipur were established in the Hill areas under the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Councils Act, 1971 to provide a separate scheme for the administration of “Hill areas” with regard to primary schools, public health, sanitation, land and forest, market etc, the Forum added that the ADCs are also vested with legislative powers for administrative and welfare services including development and economic planning. The Forum had also recalled that the last elections to the ADCs for the tenure 2015-2020 were held on June 1, 2015 and the tenure ended on May 31, 2020.
Since then, the State Government has failed to conduct ADC elections till date for reasons unknown, the Forum had stated and claimed that the failure to conduct the ADC elections even after two years tantamounts to suspending the democratic process and suppressing the Constitutional rights of the “hill tribal people of the State”.