UNC talks tough ahead of tripartite talks
Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network

Senapati, May 18 2018: The United Naga Council (UNC) has asserted that the Naga people will not accept anything other than the "rolling back" of the new districts created in 2016 .

"We only want rolling back of the districts created by the Manipur Government in 2016, nothing else," said Gaidon Kamei, president of the UNC on the eve of the next round of talk scheduled for May 19, Saturday.

Sources said that the UNC executives discussed on the district creation issue in the last few days at Senapati district headquarters and expressed dismay over the manner the State Government is 'managing' the issue.

"The Naga leaders are on the 'enough is enough' mode at this point of time," the sources disclosed.

Talking to Newmai News Network tonight, Gaidon Kamei said that they are disappointed with the State Government's inability to come up with a concrete position to show that they are serious on the issue.

"The Manipur Government had requested us to give enough time so that it could make all efforts to resolve the issue and accordingly we obliged.

Now it is going to be two years but nothing concrete has come up," rued the UNC president.

"The Manipur Government must prove its worth this time or else we are going to take up our own course of measures," Gaidon cautioned.

The Government of Manipur had admitted during the first tripartite talks, March 19, 2017, on the district creation issue that, "the grievances of the United Naga Council which led to the imposition of the economic blockade was recognized as there was nonadherence to the four Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the Government of India's assurance on the matter" .

According to Gaidon Kamei, the Naga people have realized now that the Government of Manipur has no political will to address the district creation issue.

"If the Manipur Govt cannot address the issue then it is not our problem," stated Gaidon Kamei adding that the UNC may takeup its own course of action depending on the outcome of Saturday's talk (May 19) which will be held at Senapati district headquarters.

It can be noted here that the last tripartite talk was held on March 23,2018.In that talk it -was agreed that the next round of talk would be held on April 21 .

However, due to some 'exigencies' of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India, the talk was deferred.

It is also worth mentioning here that, in all the talks, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been chairing.

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