Get back to the hills, IDF tells ADCs
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 06 2012:
Asserting that the Autonomous District Councils should be locally based and function at their home turf, the Indigenous Tribal Front (IDF) has demanded that the ADCs should forthwith be shifted from Imphal to the hill districts or else a series of agitation would be launched.
In a statement issued to the press, IDF said that election to the Autonomous District Councils was held in June 2010 to bring about local self Government.
However in the last two years, far from realising governance at the grass root level, the ADCs have been functioning from the State capital, Imphal, thereby violating the Constitutional provisions for local self Government.
At the moment, the ADCs, including that of Senapati, Chandel, Ukhrul, and Tamenglong are functioning from Imphal, which is anti-thesis to the understanding of local self Government, it said.
Stating that it seriously views the distortion of democratic norms and Constitutional provisions, the IDF said that no local self Government can function through remote control.
"This is hoodwinking the tribal people and depriving the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India," said the statement.
In case the ADCs fail to return to their respective districts, the blame should lay squarely on the shoulder of the Deputy Commissioners concerned and the Governor of Manipur, said the IDF.
It is the duty of the respective DCs to report about the functioning of the ADCs and the Governor should take steps accordingly, the IDF said and questioned what the DCs have been doing when the ADCs have not been functioning at their headquarters.
Stating that the ADCs should return to base, the IDF questioned what the respective ADCs have done for their districts in the last two years.
The IDF will not sit idle and watch the deprivation of the democratic rights and development facilities of the hill people.
Locating the office at Imphal is akin to making a mockery of the very purpose for setting up the ADCs in the first place, maintained the IDF.