Row over boundary fencing project
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 03, 2022 -

IT'S an irony that a day after minister of state for external affairs and education Dr RK Ranjan emphasised that all concerned should strive to extract the benefits of Centre's reformative Act East Policy, the United Committee Manipur (UCM) has contended that on completion of boundary fencing project being carried out in Kwatha sector of the Indo-Myanmar border a sizeable territory of Manipur/India will fall under the neighbouring country.

Speaking during the virtual meet on 'Garib Kalyan Sammelan' held across the country on Tuesday, the junior minister in the external affairs ministry reminded that the Act East Policy is an initiative to bring development in northeast region by way of connecting the region with other Southeast Asian countries.

Along with commending Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking keen interest in the holistic development of the northeast region, Dr Ranjan had stressed that the cross border trade that opened underthe AE policy should not be a gateway only for importing goods from other countries but taken advantage of to produce and export goods.

His remarks signified that the policy aimed at reaching out to economically developed ASEAN Bloc countries shouldn't benefit only the affluent sections of the society and those involved in the export-import businesses but the fruits of improvement, if any, in trade and commerce relations with the Southeast Asian nations should also reach the commoners in the form of promoting work culture in various sectors.

Accepted that objective of the Policy is to spur development in the northeast region, but without settling the boundary issue there is remote possibility of Manipur reaping the projected benefits.

It must be noted that United Committee Manipur (UCM) is not the only civil society organisation that has raked up the boundary dispute for non-BJP political parties too had been proposing to the central and state governments for timely address of the outstanding disputes in order to promote trade activities and people-to-people contact with Myanmar and beyond.

Some years back, Haolenphai village near Moreh town was in the news after the villagers protested installation of border pillars deep into the Indian territory and frequent incursion and harassment of the local villagers by Myanmarese soldiers.

Now, with UCM demanding that the on-going fencing work in areas between Border Pillar Number 81 and 82 at Kwatha Khunou sector in Tengnoupal district should be suspended till the dispute over the boundary is resolved, the government authorities should act swiftly to ensure that the issue does not lead to law and order problem in the state.

If at all the government authorities believe that there is no ambiguity in the fencing project, suspect that there is more than meets the eye for the civil societies to periodically conduct surveys and claim irregularities in the boundary de-marcation/alignment exercise then officials concerned should either outrightly reject such overtures or make the public aware about the ground reality and compulsion.

In view of the UCM functionaries alleging behind-the-scenes construction of international border fence without resolving the border dispute first, the Union and state governments can't rest assure that the issue wouldn't escalate into a major public agitation.

In fact, the government owes an explanation as to why the border fencing work resumed after the same was kept in abeyance since August last year pending solution to the boundary dispute.