AIMS urges PM to resolve key issues of state
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, January 04 2022: In an open letter, Apunba Imagi Machasing (AIMS), Manipur has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resolve some key issues plaguing the state, while also suggesting solutions for the same.

According to the letter, Manipur has been plagued by insurgency for the last 50 years, and this reality has been made more complex by the presence of elements determined to take advantages for unhealthy indulgence of being in the international borders.

These elements are adept in pretending to be insurgents, while simultaneously making inroads into the administrative mechanism as committed to the cause of governance objectives.

They are profitably playing the game of Narco-Terrorism, which is manifested inter alia by the fact that huge tracts of land in the mountain regions of the state have been transformed into huge tracts of Poppy fields at the costs of natural forests.

This is compounded by the fact that clandestine factories have sprung up to convert the poppy into heroin and thereby, lowering the street price of Heroin and spreading the impact of drugs-misuse amongst the youth on a massive scale.

Thus, a framework has been put in place for coordinated personal aggrandizement mechanisms.

The letter continued: "In this regard there is an urgent need to provide viable alternative means to substitute poppy plantation by environmentally sustainable in terventions.

Further, there is the need to establish a regional level Mental Health Institute in Manipur along the lines of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore.

This will enable us to meet challenges arising out of prolonged exposure to insurgency and drug-abuse in the state as well as in the region.

"To meet the continuing threat of social corruption by these pseudo elements we must be able to provide alternative means of "occupation" not only in terms of jobs but also of "engagement".

Only persons who have been cleared by the Intelligence Bureau should be appointed as heads of central institutions functioning in the state to begin with, in right earnest and as stated earlier, there are elements with expertise in pretending to be committed to the national cause.

"Also, the development of Manipur - under a comprehensive and coherent approach - will have a positive multiplier effect in our neighbouring countries that will enhance our national efforts in countering growing Chinese influence in the region by addressing both the external challenges and the internal imperatives; and at the same time, strengthening the historical and cultural relationships between the peoples of the South East Asian region and the state and the Country.

"In this context, there is a strong need for the development of a new International Highway connecting Manipur with Myanmar via Khamsom in Ukhrul district and with the Homilin Port on the Chindwin River in Myanmar.

The significance of this arises from the fact that the Chinese have already developed the biggest River Port on the Chindwin and in Mandalay coupled by a new township with Educational Institutions from primary to the University Level; this implies that the present Act East Policy initiatives would be under the eye and dominating influence of the Chinese.

"Here two initiatives are paramount.

First, development of the new International Highway through Ukhrul district would create an advantage of 73 km in distance, linkages and evolution of international relationships under our own ethos and free from the direct prying eyes of the Chinese.

Secondly, there is a need for a powerful qualitative'response to the quantitative-oriented approaches of the Chinese.

In this, there is a need for establishing an International University in Manipur with an eye to attract South East and East Asian students and scholars with strong South East and East Asia curricula.

This qualitative intervention would create a perma -nent capacity to care for our interests in the South East and East Asia by creating a long-term convergence of cultural, demographic, historical and political relationships for our International Political Economic Interests," conveyed the letter jointly appended by AIMS advisors and Manipur University former vice chancellor Prof Amar Yumnam, Manipur Human Rights Commission former chairperson in-charge Yambem Laba, former additional director of Health Services (Manipur) Dr S Manikanta Singh, AIMS president Mayanglambam Khelendro, secretary Mawung Mingthing, and directors Dr Atom Sunil Singh and N Ratan Meetei.

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