JAC meets CM, sets pre-requisites for discussions ; Five days deadline set to start formal talks
Source: The Sangai Express

CCpur, November 09 2015: The JAC representatives accompanied by other tribal stake holders today met the Chief Minister at his office chamber and reportedly maintained that the Government should fulfil their three-point pre-requisites within five days to start the formal talks.

Recalling the three contentious Bills passed on August 31, 2015 by the State Assembly and placing them on the Chief Minister's table within five days; accepting a representative from the Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI with an officer of not less than a Joint Secretary to witness the talks and conveying the same in writing to both the JAC and the Ministry; and fulfilling the tribal customary laws and traditional practices of paying Luangmuan (monetary penalty for murder) for the nine 'tribal martyrs' and compensation for the maimed and injured.

These are the demands the JAC team placed before the Chief Minister today.

File pic of a dharna at CCpur

'Upon the fulfilment of the above pre-requisites, the talks between the Government of Manipur and the tribal representatives led by the JAC, in the presence of a representative from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India shall commence,' said the JAC.

It added that the talks when commenced will deliberate on the three 'anti-tribal' Bills and the Manipur Legislative Assembly (Hill Areas Committee) order, 1972; the points of which are listed in details in their four paged Charter of Demands.

Some of the prominent points the JAC have included in their Charter of Demands which will be discussed as and when the talk commences are insertion of exclusion clause for the Acts � PMP Bill 2015; MLR & LR (Seventh Amendment) Bill 2015; Manipur Shops and Establishment (2nd Amendment) Bill 2015 - which means that they are not to be extended within the jurisdiction of the Manipur (Hill Areas) Autonomous District Councils as well as Hill Pocket Villages encroached by the Panchayati Raj Institutions and deletion of the phrase 'other than a Money Bill' from Section 4(2) of the Manipur Legislative Assembly (Hill Areas Committee) Order, 1972.The JAC presented a detailed account of their demands before the Chief Minister but did not specify what would be their next step if the Government fails to fulfil their pre-requisites within five days.