New Delhi, July 28 2009: The new Union Home Secretary Gopal Pillai popularly known as GK Pillai today said Manipur issue would be looked into as one of his priority tasks as it requires attention.

The Home secretary was making a special address to a gathering of academics and scholars on the second day of a workshop on North East and its neighbourhood on the theme "Governance and Security:India's north east and Bangladesh" at Jamia Millia Islamia University campus this morning.

He said,"Manipur requires a lot of attention".

Manipur has a lot of talents in the field of culture and sports but the government is yet to appreciate it.

That needs to be looked into.

"It would be one of my priority tasks",the Secretary said.

Saying that it is not easy to solve insurgency without people's involvement, Pillai asserted that everybody has to be part of it and everybody has to put weight on it.

On the issue of security situation, the Home Secretary also informed that there was a report of more casualties of civilians and militants than the security men in Manipur.

He also said that extortion a growing industry in the region.

Earlier, Sanjoy Hazarika of Centre for North East Studies talked on "Illegal migration: what is to be done" as part of the workshop held under the aegis of Indian Council of Social Science Research and Centre for NE Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia at the conference hall of Academy of Third World Studies.

Prof Veena Sikri of Bangladesh Studies Program, Jamia Millia Islamia talked on "Unravelling the state's responses" while Dr Sanjeev Kakoty, a Shillong-based researcher presented a slide show on "Meghalaya and Bangladesh: borders and concerns."Dr Bimol Akoijam of Jawaharlal Nehru University gave a lecture on "Locating the problems" in the afternoon session though his Manipuri colleague Dr Bhagat Oinam talked on "Manipur-Losing ground" on the first day of the workshop which was attended by researchers and scholars from different places.

Editor of Shillong Times, Patricia Mukhim and Dr Mahfuza Rahman of Cotton College, Guwahati also presented their respective papers on RTI, civil society and the state and "Us and Them� a perspective on the migration impasse" discussion on the first day.

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