Source: The Imphal Free Press
Imphal, August 14:
Several women's groups of Manipur, including the Poirei Leimarol Meira Paibi Apunba and the Eramdam Manipur Mothers Association have drawn the urgent attention of the union home minister to the blockades imposed by Naga organizations on NH-39 after the government's decision to review the June 14 Bangkok agreement, and the sufferings faced by the people of the state in consequences.
The organizations in a memorandum addressed to the Union home minister, said that as a result of the blockade, the state of Manipur and her people have been totally disconnected from the Indian mainland, and the people of the state of both hills and valley have been forced to undergo untold sufferings due to the deprivation of basic commodities for human survival and called for immediate deployment of a rapid highway protection force for the NH-39.The organizations complained that the blockading groups, which they termed as frontal organizations of the NSCN(IM) have on several occasions in the past, 'strangulated' the people of the state in like manner for giving political pressure for achieving their political goals.
The memorandum also drew the attention of the home minister to the exorbitant extortion by the NSCN(IM) and its �frontal organizations� from commercial vehicles traveling along NH-39.As a result of such extortion, there has been no development in the state of Manipur.
The memorandum urged for deployment of a rapid highway protection force for the NH-39 on a war footing, and called for action to stop extortion and looting of vehicles along the highway.
In this connection, the memorandum also urged that responsibilities of national highway monitoring and deployment of the rapid force should be entrusted to a unified command that can be led by a GOC, or an IG of the state police.