Deepening border row
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 24, 2013 -
State police and civil officials talking to a Myanmarese Army personnel on the issue of constructing a plantoon base camp at Haolenphai village.
:: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao
With each passing day, rising tension among the people over the loss of a large chunk of Manipur's land to Myanmar on account of the ongoing border fencing along the yet to be demarcated Indo-Myanmar International boundary and the inert response of the Government of Manipur as well as New Delhi is becoming too stark.
After a joint inspection team of various civil society organizations led by Information Centre for Hill Areas, Manipur (ICHAM) revealed how the ongoing 'faulty' border fencing has divided Govajang village into two halves, one falling on India's side and the other on Myanmar's side; a committee formed under the name of 'Committee on Protection of Land in Border Fencing (CPLBF) during a joint meeting of various social organizations in the State on August 2 duly submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh urging him for intervention to stop the ongoing border fencing until the traditional boundary between two neighbouring countries is demarcated properly.
But trying to allay the fear of the people, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India came up with a clarification on August 8, asserting that the report of losing Manipur's land to Myanmar from border fencing had been written and published without checking the full details on the international practices and the ground level facts.
Emboldened by this, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh termed the media report over loss of State's land to Myanmar as 'malicious' and went on record to claim that the border fencing is being monitored by the State Government and there is no dispute at all.
However, subsequent inspections conducted by delegates of Manipur People's Party, United Committee Manipur (UCM), All Manipur Nupi Marup, etc, have only confirmed that the loss of State's land to Myanmar is even more than what was initially thought of, thus, exposing the hollowness of the clarification made by the Government of India and the 'parroting' of the same by the State Government without actually verification the matter.
With the heat piling up, and thus, leaving no other option, the State Government announced formation of a high-power committee headed by Principal Secretary (Home) as chairman and Additional Secretary (Home) as member-secretary while Inspector General of Police (Intelligence), Inspector General of Assam Rifles (South), Border Road Task Force (BRTF) official in charge of Indo-Myanmar border fencing, Deputy Commissioner of Chandel district, Superintendent of Police (Chandel) and Additional Deputy Commissioner (More) as members, to look into the problem arising out of the fencing process along Indo-Myanmar border.
Even as the people are still in the dark over the activities of the said high-power committee and how far it has accomplished in its mission, now an even more disturbing report has come in about the Myanmarese Army encroaching upon the land of Hoalenphai village, which is located about 3 km to the south of Moreh Police Station and just adjacent to the disputed site of border pillar no. 76, and starting the construction work on a temporary base camp of its platoon.
What does the Government of Manipur and New Delhi have to say to this?
Another malicious report?
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