Time to do more than talk : Under siege since Mar 21
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 31, 2022 -
Making known the position of the State over Dzuko Valley is acknowledged but don't more need to be done?
This question is important for remember Manipur has been virtually under a siege since March 21 with the blockade given more teeth from March 24 after the Southern Angami People's Organisation (SAPO) decided that no vehicle heading towards Manipur would be allowed to ply on the National Highway falling within Nagaland.
Everyone too knows that the siege is not a result of any stand off between the State Governments of Manipur and Nagaland and the crucial question is what steps have been taken up to neutralise the situation and get the highway opened for the vehicles of Manipur?
This is where the pointed question of the State unit of the Shiv Sena on why the Government of Nagaland is still silent on the matter gains credence.
The core issue is definitely Dzuko Valley, but in the process if one holds the entire population of a State to ransom, cutting off its lifeline, then some serious thinking is called for.
Herein lies the question of what the State Government has done to date to defuse the situation?
Making its stand clear on Dzuko Valley is fine and along expected line, but what about the immense suffering that people have been made to undergo?
This is a question which the Government alone can answer and with not much action taken up on ground obvious to the people, it is no wonder that a number of civil society groups based in Assam and Manipur have started speaking out with some even going to the extent of imposing what they have termed counter blockade.
Why should situation be allowed to come to such a stage that rooms are created for CSOs to come and speak out against the unfolding situation? Why should the Government allow situation to come to such a pass?
The BJP here has just received a massive mandate in its favour and it has taken the NPF along in Government formation and it is this situation which it should try to work to advantage.
Look at the picture. The NPF is also a part of the Government at Nagaland.
It is this commonness which may be used to work out a solution which may not be misunderstood by either side.
This would not have missed the eyes of the Government at Imphal, but what steps towards this have been taken up so far is what people would like to know.
And if it has, why has been there no reciprocal response from the side of Nagaland?
Today it is a humanitarian crisis and therefore important to question whether the matter has been brought to the notice of the Central Government.
Lok Sabha MP Dr RK Ranjan Singh is understood to have written to the Union Railways Minister to explore the possibility of using the railwayline (Guwahati/Lumdlng/Silchar/Khongsang) to Manipur for supply of essential commodities to the State.
This is fine but obviously this cannot be the final answer.
The final answer would lie in getting in touch with whoever is possible and get the blockade on Manipur bound vehicles lifted as soon as possible.
Taking the Jiribam route for goods is okay but to ferry people from say Guwahati to Imphal would amount to telling the people to stay cooped up inside a bus for 30 hours at a stretch and certainly this is not what the people voted for when Manipur went to polls on February 28 and March 5.
The Government at Kohima and at Imphal ought to talk and see how to resolve the matter.
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