MMTU flays Kuki chieftainship

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Dec 5: The Meetei (Meitei) Tribe Union (MMTU) has highlighted how the Kuki chieftainship  has been abetting illegal immigration from Myanmar.
Even though the Government adopted a resolution to abolish the Kuki chieftain-ship in 1976,  the same Act is being kept alive for parochial political interests, the MMTU said in a statement.
Saying that the Kuki chieftainship is quite different from the Naga chieftainship, the MMTU has called upon the Naga people of Manipur to join the collective efforts to check illegal immigration from Myanmar.
There are chiefs in Tangkhul Naga villages. They serve as the heads of village councils which look after village welfare, development, socio-cultural matters and rituals.
Even though they are heads of the village councils, the Tangkhul Naga village chiefs have no dictatorial power, unlike Kuki-Zo village chiefs.
On the other hand, the Kuki-Zo village chiefs act as absolute authority, enjoy all privileges and own the entire village lands.  
Moreover, all the funds sanctioned by the Government for the development of Kuki-Zo villages go to the village chiefs. In short, Kuki-Zo village chiefs enjoy dictatorial power, the MMTU said.
By manipulating the Manipur Legislative Assembly’s Hill Area Order 1972,  a new trend has emerged where a man can set up a new village and go on to become its chief even though the man has no right of inheritance to the title of village chief.
This has resulted in the growth of a number of new villages. In order to populate these new villages, hundreds of illegal immigrants are being brought in from Myanmar, the MMTU said.
Apart from settling unlawfully in the State, the Government of India has enrolled them in the voter list and the illegal immigrants are being used as vote banks, it said.
The illegal immigrants possess several identification documents like Aadhaar cards, job cards, ration cards etc and thus they enjoy benefits of all welfare schemes.
In addition, the Government of India has enlisted the illegal immigrants in the ST list. In order to encompass all the illegal immigrants from Myanmar, the Government of India is using a very vague term called ‘Any Kuki Tribe’ as an ST category, it pointed out.
The MMTU said that this undue favouring of the illegal immigrants is posing serious threats to the indigenous Naga community on socio-economic, political and cultural fronts.
The MMTU has declared that it fully supports the stance of the Joint Tribes Council, Manipur to check the continuous influx of illegal immigrants.
According to the Manipur Hill Area Regulation Act 1956, a village should have at least 20 households and they must be paying house tax if the village must be recognised by the Government.
The State Government issued an order on August 3, 2022 saying that a village can be recognised if only it has at least 50 households paying house tax.
But a large number of Kuki villages have just seven/eight households.
When Kukis first made their settlement in the hill areas of Manipur, they used to pay house tax to Naga village chiefs. But today, the immigrants have been acting as legitimate land owners and they are even driving out the indigenous people.
Now the illegal immigrants have been claiming several parts of Manipur as their ancestral land, the MMTU noted.
The Government of Manipur adopted a resolution to abolish the Kuki chieftainship in 1967. The President of India gave assent to the same resolution on June 14, 1967 and it was published in the gazette on June 20, 1967. Later, the Manipur Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution to abolish Kuki chieftainship in February, 2024, it said.
Under the Kuki chieftainship, the Kuki population in Manipur saw abnormal growth between 1991 and 2001. Chakpikarong recorded growth rate of 100.18 per cent, Machi 65.46 per cent, Kamjong 60.95 per cent, Tengnoupal  54.48 per cent, Saitu-Gamphazol 54.12 per cent, Chandel 41.70 per cent and Churachandpur 40.77 per cent.
All these places are largely inhabited by illegal immigrants from Myanmar, the MMTU added.