TODAY -
Manipur government has to wrest authority back from armed thugs
Economic Times | Abheek Barman | 15 NOV, 2011
Here in Delhi, you can buy a litre of petrol for a little less than Rs 69. A cylinder of cooking gas costsRs 405. But there's one state capital where petrol costs Rs 200 a litre and gas a staggeringRs 2,000 a cylinder. That city is Imphal, the capital of our easternmost state, Manipur. Since August 1, the state has been hostage to a withering siege: a blockage of two main highways that connect Imphal to Assam.
Both pass through territories where ethnic Naga and Kuki people, who consider themselves different from Manipur's majority Meiteis, live. These communities want parts of their areas to get some sort of autonomy from the state government.
Their way of pushing their demands is to hold up commercial traffic on highways. So, it's not just petrol and diesel that are in short supply; even stocks of medicines are drying up. Now, think about this: where else in India could you have a bunch - or three - of people holding up traffic on the main arterial highways for more than three months?
This November, Sharmila's protest completed 11 years. Six, the combination of weak civil institutions, an all-powerful military and simmering militancy has led to an almost complete breakdown of what we consider normal life in Manipur. At one count, there were 34 militant organisations in the state. This number is not stable or sacrosanct: militant outfits constantly splinter and coalesce.
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* This Post is uploaded on November 15 2011
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