Tribal body refutes Govt on boundary issue
Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network

Imphal, February 07 2023: The Joint Co-ordination Committee on Tribal Rights Manipur (JCCOTRM), in a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, has decried the alleged arbitrary decision of the Cabinet on January 25, 2023 regarding delimitation of district boundary disputes in the State.

"In this regard, we would like to put on record that there have been no boundary disputes between the districts in the State since its inception till today," the memorandum said.

Since there is no boundary dispute amongst the districts of Manipur, the said Cabinet decision to conduct delimitation of district boun-daries is totally uncalled for and has no basis at all, the tribal committee asserted.

"Therefore, the said Cabinet decision may be withdrawn at the earliest to avoid unnecessary complications.

Instead of going for unnecessary exercise, the Government may transfer all the land records to the respective hill districts as per the Government of Manipur order of June, 2013," it added.

The memorandum said, "In view of the stated facts and circumstances as submitted to your good office from time to time, we would once again, request you to kindly take up immediate necessary actions within the month of February, 2023, failing which this committee shall be compelled to take up more stringent actions in collaboration with tribal civil society organisations of the State till our genuine demands are met ".

According to the JCCOTRM, the memorandum was submitted to the Chief Minister on February 3, 2023 .

The committee said that the memorandum was in continuation of its earlier memorandum of November of 18, 2022 on land and forest matters as well as other related issues affecting the rights of tribal people of Manipur.

The memorandum also demanded revocation of orders pertaining to the "overlapping villages" in Manipur.

Regarding this matter, the committee said, "We are constrained to re-visit the orders as issued by the Secretariat: Revenue Department viz, DRO-106/14/2022-REV-REVENUE, dated 24th October 2022 (Churachandpur & Bishnupur, Tengnoupal & Kakching, Kangpokpi & Imphal East & West) and the subsequent order issued by the respective Deputy Commissioners relating to the order (as above) regarding list of 'overlapping villages' in Manipur" .

According to the JCCOTRM, while it was anomalous to find that all the orders have the same reference number, which in normal circumstances should not be the case as each order was sent separately to the districts even though the meeting was chaired by the Secretary to the Chief Minister.

The committee said that for such an important decision that has the potential to decide the future of Manipur, it is also odd to note that the meeting was not even at the Cabinet level but chaired by a Secretary to the Chief Minister.

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