Remove border fences, demand Oppn parties
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 23 2013: A meeting of all political parties held today at Keishampat Lairembi Community Hall took a resolution and demanded the Government of India to remove the border fence being constructed along Manipur sector of Indo-Myanmar as well as the wooden fence put by Myanmar inside Manipur's Hollenphai village.

With the exception of Congress, leaders of a dozen political parties attended the meeting.

They included MSCP, CPI, JD(U), CPI(M), MPP, NCP, All India Forward Bloc, BSP, Shiv Sena, NPF, Pangal Political Forum and BJP.

Although Congress was invited to the meeting, none of the Congress leaders were present at the meeting.

The meeting resolved that the Government of India should work to constitute a joint survey team with their Myanmarese counterparts as a matter of urgency.

The team should include a Government officer having thorough knowledge of Manipur and its territory, read the second resolution.

Manipur Government, on behalf of the people of Manipur, should urge the Government of India to declare that the border fencing work has been suspended.

Another resolution of the meeting said that the State Government should convene an all political parties meeting at the earliest to deliberate on the border issue.

The Government of Manipur should ensure that all these resolutions are translated into action by October, read the final resolution.

Addressing the meeting, NCP's L Ibomcha said that the issue of border fencing and loss of Manipur's territory is no ordinary issue.

The area Manipur is likely to lose or has lost is as large as Bishnupur district.

Given such a grave situation, the State Government should work with responsibility.

People too should take the responsibility of guarding the State's boundary.

There is a need to mobilise and launch a mass movement on the issue, Ibomcha said.

There is no doubt that the Government of India is least concerned with the issue.

Till date, no Union Ministers or Secretaries have bothered to visit Manipur and know the sentiment of people.

Dr Nara of CPI claimed that today's joint meeting of opposition parties assumed greater significance because of the Government of India's complete disregard of the border issue.

He went on to claim that the meeting was about saving Manipur.

CPI(M)'s Sarat Salam remarked that the Government of India, by keeping itself aloof from the border issue, has exposed lack of concern for the people settled in border areas.

The Congress Government led by Chief Minister O Ibobi is an undemocratic Government and the Government deserves outright condemnation for preventing the opposition parties from taking out a mass rally on the issue of border fencing and Myanmar's incursion into the territory of Manipur, he alleged.

Pangal People's Front president Aziz Khan said that holding rounds of meeting would not help the matter.

Saying that war is a road to peace, he called upon the people to go to Moreh together and dismantle the border fence.

NPF general secretary Athon Abonmai said that people would like to know the stand of Congress party which is in power both in the State and the Centre on the issue of border fencing.

Charging that the Ibobi-led Congress Government has failed miserably in terms of governance, Athon said that Congress Ministers and MLAs are keeping themselves busy in distributing rice without sharing any thought on the border issue and imminent loss of large chunks of Manipur's territory.

BJP spokesperson Y Nilamani called upon the people to teach a befitting lesson to Congress party for giving away Manipur's territory to Myanmar in the name of border fencing.

BSP State unit president N Kavita said that people cannot mobilise themselves for a mass movement because they do not have detail information about the controversial border fencing work.

Without people's movement, Manipur stands to lose large chunks of its territory.

The issue demands a huge movement of Manipuri women, she asserted.

MPP president N Sovakiran decried that the three Manipur MP's have not uttered a single word about the border issue so far.

Whereas Congress party was elected to power in order to protect the territorial integrity of Manipur, the same party has sold off vast border areas of Manipur, Sovakiran alleged while calling upon the people to award a befitting punishment to Congress party.

JD(U) president M Tombi said that successive Governments in New Delhi did not work to address any issue of Manipur in time.

It was only when the issues have reached critical stages that New Delhi thought it necessary to intervene.

This is nothing but deliberate humiliation of the people of Manipur, Tombi said.

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