Act or face boycott: UPF to Congress
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 29 2013 : Decrying that the Government authorities have been sleeping over their assurance of initia-ting political dialogue with Kuki rebel groups, the United Peoples Front (UPF), one of the two conglomerates of Kuki UG groups under tripartite SoO agreement with the Centre and the State Government, has threatened to boycott Congress party in Kuki areas in the co-ming Lok Sabha election if no political talk is held before the election.

The UPF convened a mee-ting on June 26 and expressed its unhappiness over the inordinate delay in starting political dialogue by the Government contrary to repeated assurances it gave towards this end.

The meeting resolved that UPF would be compelled to review the SoO agreement in case nothing is done before the next SoO extension which is due on August 22, 2013 .

Whereas the Government has been raising all the hue and cry whenever small incidents of ground rule violation are committed by cadres, the Government remains totally blind to its own violation.

By not holding Joint Mo-nitoring Group (JMG) meeting for the last seven months as against the mutual agreement of holding JMG meeting at least once a month, the Go-vernment is violating the agreement.

The meagre stipend given to cadres is very irregular and the same has been stopped from December last year.

The meeting held on June 26 resolved that no more camp inspection and verification cadres inside designated camps of UPF would be allowed until all the pending stipend is cleared, said a press release issued by KRA(U) C-in-C C Robinson Thadou who was appointed UPF information and publicity secretary at the same meeting.

Most of the camp infrastructure and requirements are not satisfactory although it was an agreed point in the SoO ground rules.

Stopping payment of stipend means starving the cadres or forcing them to violate ground rules.

Given this situation, the meeting resolved that UPF would be free to opt for any option in future and the Government should bear responsibility for any outcome thereof in case no concrete step is taken up till August this year.

The UPF reminded that during a meeting held on January 3 this year, Government authorities made a hopeful promise of initiating political dialogue in the earliest possible time, probably within two months but the same promise remains unfulfilled even after six months.

While Joint Secretary (Home) and North East in-charge Sambhu Singh represented the Government of India at the meeting, the Government of Manipur was represented by Principal Secretary (Home) Suresh Babu, ADGP LM Khaute and SP (CID) Achin.

Again, in another meeting held on February 23 this year at Imphal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs Sambhu Singh assured UPF that appointment of interlocutor shall be completed after the winter parliament session or by February 29 and dialogue may begin just after that but the same assurance has vanished into thin air like the previous one, UPF decried.

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