Imphal, August 19: The Steering Committee of the Secular Progressive Front coalition which met today has unanimously decided to press the Centre to declare Manipur as a flood affected State.

The meeting which was held from 3 pm till 7.30 pm today with Lok Sabha MP Th Chaoba in the chair discussed a number of issues ranging from the current flood situation to the upcoming Panchayat election scheduled for August 30, revocation of Disturbed Area status and the issue of lifting prohibition from the hill districts of the State, said a well placed source.

The meeting discussed in detail the damages and losses inflicted by the flood and decided to approach the Centre to declare Manipur as a flood affected State.

The meeting also took cognizance of the immense loss inflicted by the flood.

On the upcoming Panchayat election scheduled for August 30, the meeting deliberated on whether to go ahead with the election as scheduled or defer it to a later date.

Some of the members expressed their reservations against deferring the election as the flood situation was not so devastating at Imphal West and Bishnupur districts.

For Thoubal district, some of the members opined that if any postponement of the election is to be effected, then it would be prudent to approach the Court first and get due permission.

The Steering Committee also appealed to all the Ministers, MLAs and the public to extend whatever help they can to ameliorate the sufferings of the flood affected people.

Taking the prevailing law and order situation into consideration, the meeting discussed the feasibility of revoking the Disturbed Area status from the State.

A number of Committee members voiced their opinion favoring the revocation of the Act as the imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act has not been able to better or control the law and order situation in the State.

The meeting agreed to pressurize the Centre to revoke the Act.

Mention may be made here that the Act has been extended for another year.

The decision of the SPF Government to lift prohibition from the hill districts of Manipur also came up for minute discussion during the meeting.

The Government had decided to lift the dry law to better the financial condition of the State.

However the Bill to lift prohibition is yet to be enacted.

In another development, the Steering Committee has also agreed to accept the resignation of Rajya Sabha MP Rishang Keishing as the Chairman of the Steering Committee.