Supreme Court's door to be knocked over Merger Agreement
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, July 01 2013: With the terms and conditions under which Manipur had signed the Merger Agreement with India on September 21, 1949 not fulfilled till date, a case is all set to be filed in the Supreme Court of India.

Announcing this during a press conference at Manipur Press Club here today, Dr Th Suresh, Chairman of Dr Suresh Centre for Foreign Studies and Placement, pointed out that during the signing of Merger Agreement between Manipur and India in 1949, both parties agreed on nine different Articles.

According to Article VIII (3), it was agreed that special quota for the people of Manipur would be reserved for job recruitment in Central Government.

However, this has not been fulfilled so far.

Dr Suresh informed that on May 8, 2012, an RTI application was filed to the office of Prime Minister of India for providing information on whether there have been any cases where the youths of Manipur had benefitted from Article VIII (3) of the Merger Agreement.

In response to the RTI application, the office of the Prime Minister conveyed that it was not its concern but that of the Home Department.

The Home Department, on the other hand, had been giving irresponsible answers saying that there is no copy of the Merger Agreement with it.

Since no answer was obtained from the concerned department even after lapsed of four months, the first appeal was made on August 10 last year.

Later, after a series of appeals, a hearing was conducted on April 15, 2013 wherein the Court ordered to provide the information being sought within four weeks time, he recalled.

Consequently, the information thus sought came from the Home Department on June 14 last and it was confirmed that the youths of Manipur have not been given any benefit as per the terms and conditions of the Merger Agreement, Dr Suresh disclosed.

He went on to inform that since the Home Ministry had earlier informed that he should go to the Supreme Court if the terms and conditions of the Merger Agreement have not been fulfilled, necessary processes have been started for filing a case in the Supreme Court very soon and BJP has also agreed to arrange the required lawyer to fight the case.

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