All Meitei Council gives 72-hr strike call
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, November 21 2021:
All Meitei Council, a conglomerate of 16 bodies, has announced a 72-hour statewide general strike from November 25 if the state government fails to forward the Meitei-Meetei Ethnography Report to the Union government within November 24 .
Announcing this in a press meet held at Manipur Press Club here on Sunday, Council chairman and World Meitei Council chairman Heikrujam Nabashyam said that after protracted demand by the Schedules Tribe Demand Committee Manipur for inclusion of Meitei-Meetei in the ST list since 2012, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs notified to the state government in June, 2013 to send an ethnographic and socio-economic report of Meitei-Meetei community.
However, the state government has been suppressing the letter sent from the Ministry till date.
"Although the British considered the Meitei-Meetei community as tribals, when India decided to include Meitei-Meetei in ST list in 1959, some of the leaders refused stating that the community was the descendent of Arjun and hence, cannot be taken as ST.
The present generation understands that the community should be included in the ST list.
However, the state government has not taken up any action in this regard.
As the Ministry has sought the report, there is no need for discussing the same in the Assembly or by the cabinet.
The state government only needs to submit the report and the parliament will decide whether Meitei-Meetei should be included in the ST list or not," he reasoned.
Nabashyam then demanded the government to submit the report by November 24, failing which a 72-hour state-wide general strike will be imposed from November 25 onwards.
If the government continues to remain indifferent even after the general strike, more intense agitations will be launched along with the people of the state, he cautioned.