Students take NRC demand to Delhi

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Mar 17: Demanding updation and implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur, students from the State staged a protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar, Delhi today.
The protest demonstration was jointly organised by ANSAM, Thadou Students’ Association Delhi, World Meetei Council, MSAD, UNIKAS, MSF, DESAM, KSA, SUK, AIMS and another student organisation.
DESAM president Leishangthem Lamyanba who took part in the protest said that the population of Manipur rose sharply after the then Chief Commissioner of Manipur abolished a system in 1950 which regulated entry of non-local people into the State.  
In the subsequent decades, the State witnessed an abnormal population growth rate and the population growth rate of Manipur suddenly surpassed the National growth rate, Lamyanba said.
Such population growth rate is simply impossible if  seen from the perspective of natural births, he said.
It only indicates that there has been an incessant influx of illegal migrants since 1950 till date, Lamyanba said.
Identification of illegal migrants by way of updating the NRC and making a separate arrangement for them as per a Government policy has been one persistent demand of the people of Manipur, he said.  
If the NRC is not updated and the illegal influx is not checked, the indigenous people of Manipur would certainly face extinction in the near future, Lamyanba added.
He said that today’s protest was fuelled by these growing apprehensions.