Kangleipakki Yelhoumeegi Numit : Need to check labourers 'overstaying' in State stressed
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, December 31 2022: The International Peace and So-cial Advancement (IPSA) has asserted that it's time to check whether non-local labourers engaged by different companies/firms and brought to the State for several construction works go back to their home State or are overstaying in Manipur after completion of the projects for which they were engaged.

The Indigenous People's Association of Kangleipak (IPAK) observed the Kang-leipakki Yelhoumeegi Numit (Day of the Indigenous People of Kangleipak) at Manipur Press Club here today.

Speaking at the event, IPSA advisor Heikrujam Ibotombi Khuman said that majority of the non-local labourers who came to the State for execution of different projects did not go back to their home States after completion of the projects but are staying back in Manipur.

Kangleipakki Yelhoumeegi Numit : Need to check labourers 'overstaying' in State stressed

All the non-local labourers engaged in the railway project, highway projects, other projects and those working as porters, barbers, cobblers and hawkers first came to the State for a temporary period.

But it is essential to check whether they go back to their home States after staying in Manipur for some time, Ibotombi said.

Many non-local labourers have married local women and several colonies of non-local people are now emerging along Jiri road, Mao road, Ukhrul road and Jessami road etc, he said.

He warned that the indigenous people would face a very serious threat after some years if the non-local labourers who came to Manipur for a temporary period are not sent back to their home States.

Pointing out that non-local people now constitute one-third of the total population of Manipur, Ibotombi remarked that the ILP check-points are not effective enough.

He said that the police personnel manning the ILP check-points are unable to identify the non-local people who come to the State using forged documents.

He then appealed to all drivers of inter-State buses and trucks to stop bringing in non-local people unlawfully.

Even as several CSOs and the indigenous people of the land have been urging the successive Governments to set up State Population Commission, adopt 1951 as base year for updating National Register of Citizens and send back all non-local people who came to the State after 1951, the Government is paying no heed to these demands, he decried.

IPAK president Ksh Somorendro underscored the need for cultivating a healthy work culture among the indigenous people and support businesses run by indigenous people in order to check influx of non-local people.

IPAK advisor Sapamcha Jadumani, Kabui Union Manipur president Dr K Heera Kabui, IPSA general secretary W Guneshor and ACOAM Lup president Sanjit Soraisam too attended the event as presidium members.