Sadar Hills : Back again to haunt all : Overlooking administrative convenience
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 03 2016 -

Clear that the Sadar Hills issue has come back to again haunt the people of the land.

If the more than 100 days blockade in 2011 was on the demand that Sadar Hills be upgraded to a district, this time it is the opposition to the creation of Sadar Hills, that one has to reckon with.

Already the United Naga Council has imposed a 48 hour general strike underlining the point that it is against any move of the State Government to grant district status to Sadar Hills.

After the 48 hours general strike or total shutdown, the UNC has gone ahead and imposed an indefinite economic blockade on all the National Highways that connect Manipur to the outside world.

A number of Naga civil society organisations have also made their stand clear on the matter, with the Zeliangrong Youth Front leading the way and announcing that bifurcating any part of the ancestral land of the Zeliangrongs will not be tolerated.

The Tangkhul Naga Foothills Organisation (TNFO) and the Tangkhul Naga Wungnao Long (TNWL) have also made their stand clear.

A clear case of one community pitched against another and this is disturbing.

A clear reflection of the deep divide amongst the indigenous people of the land.

Same is the case with the demand that Jiribam be upgraded to the status of a full fledged revenue district.

Why should a district be identified with a community is the question that naturally follows.

The Sadar Hills demand is not new and it is for this very reason why Naga civil society organisations such as the UNC and the ANSAM have been at the forefront inking MoUs with the State Government on re-organising districts as way back as 1981.

If one goes by what TNFO and TNWL have had to say then such an MoU was signed between the State Government and ANSAM as early as December 14, 1981.

This was followed by yet another MoU signed between the UNC and ANSAM on one side and the State Government on September 27, 1996.

Yet another MoU followed on June 29, 1998.

A clear sign that the Nagas have been led by far sighted leaders, and whether one agrees or disagrees with the stand of the Nagas, it has to be admitted that they have been far sighted.

Maybe more than the other communities of Manipur and this is what is interesting to note.

Yet there is still no reason why another round of district re-organisation cannot be conducted, but the important question is whether the State Government has it in them to go in for a fresh round.

Chief Minister O Ibobi and his men must surely be a worried lot at the moment, for there is always the distinct possibility of the pro-Sadar Hills group upping their ante in the days to come.