Assembly stands by integrity, says no to Territorial Council House reaffirms resolution to get Art 3 amended
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, December 20 2019: The Manipur Legislative Assembly today reaffirmed its earlier resolution to get Article 3 of the Constitution amended so as to keep the integrity of Manipur and its administrative setup intact.

In connection with the Naga peace talk, MLA RK Imo raised three starred questions (Short notice question) in the State Assembly today.

MLA AK Mirabai too sought attention of the House during zero hour to adopt a firmer resolution on the same issue.

Responding to the motions raised by the two Congress MLAs, Chief Minister N Biren gave a brief account of the current situation vis-a-vis the Naga peace talk.

He then proposed the House to reaffirm the Resolution No 121 adopted by the same House on July 23, 2018 .

Assembly stands by integrity, says no to Territorial Council House reaffirms resolution to get Art 3 amended

Speaker Y Khemchand and MLA Th Lokeshore too participated in discussing the motions.

Later, the House reaffirmed the Resolution No 121.The particular resolution seeks amendment of Article 3 of the Indian Constitution by incorporating that 'prior consent of the State legislatures of the affected States shall be mandatory while forming a new State or changing names of existing States and also to request the Government of India to make contents of the Framework Agreement available to the Government of Manipur; there shall not be any change in the present administrative setup of the State of Manipur, and autonomy of any kind should not be granted to any part of the State as a result of the Framework Agreement leading to resolution of the Naga political issue' .

Chief Minister N Biren who is also the leader of the House said that the State Assembly had adopted similar resolutions 12 times and two of them (December 22, 2017 and July 23, 2018) were adopted during the tenure of the incumbent Government.

Recently, a joint delegation of political parties and COCOMI met Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The Union Home Minister understood the situation of Manipur very clearly and also took serious note of it, Biren claimed.

However, the Union Home Minister did not divulge any details as Manipur is not a party to the political dialogue going on between the Government of India on one side and NSCN-IM and NNPGs on the other, Biren said.

He then clarified that the Union Home Minister did not make any indication of setting up autonomous territorial council although the same idea/proposal was discussed.

It is very clear that the territorial boundary of Manipur would not be affected.

Even though the territorial boundary is not affected, what is more crucial is the integrity of people and the administrative setup, asserted the Chief Minister.

He continued that if the resolution number 121 is affirmed today, the concerns and collective desire of the people of Manipur can be conveyed very clearly to the Central Government.

Speaker Y Khemchand said that usually no clarifications or replies are given to matters raised during zero hour.

But what MLA AK Mirabai raised today is in the interest of the whole State and that is why ample time is given to discuss the motion, Khemchand said.

Saying that he was a part of the delegation which met Central leaders on Naga issue recently, Khemchand too stated that no Central leader made any indication about setting up autonomous territorial council in Manipur.

Later, the resolution initiated by the Chief Minister was reaffirmed by the House and the same resolution was read out by the Speaker.

Earlier raising the motion, Mirabai warned that there would be drastic changes to the administrative setup and financial power of the State Government if any autonomous territorial council is set up in the State as a part of the solution to the Naga peace talk, and this would ultimately pave way for disintegration of Manipur.