Mega Tribal Seminar: Hill issues discussed
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Newmai News Network

Imphal, December 07 2012: Tribal leaders and intellectuals today deliberated on issues confronting the tribal people and the hill districts of Manipur.

A two-day seminar billed as the "Mega Tribal Seminar" began today organised jointly All Manipur Tribal Union (AMTU), Committee on Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur (COPTAM), ATWO, ATCFM, TNAL and TLRCC at Tribal Research Institute (TRI), Imphal.

Stalwarts like Prof Gangmumei Kamei, ex-MP B.D.Behring, Somi Keishing and others spoke on the occasion where scores of people from various fields participated.

Presenting a paper, Prof Gangmumei Kamei said that Manipur is a multi ethnic state of which the tribal constitute 32 percent of the population" .

According to Prof Gangmumei, at the time of granting statehood to Manipur in 1972, the Indian Parliament provided the Hill Area Committee (HAC) of the Manipur Legislative Assembly to provide legislative protection to the interest of the hill areas.

He said a rapid appraisal of the working of the HAC during the last 40 years has unforunately shown that it has failed to act as an effective committee, to protect the interest of the hill people.

Mega Tribal Seminar: Hill issues discussed

"The Fifth Schedule and the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India provide the mechanism for the administrative of the Scheduled Tribes and they refer to two areas.

One is called the Scheduled Areas under the Fifth Schedule and the other is called the Tribal Areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and some selected areas of Mizoram under the Sixth Schedule.

The tribal areas of Manipur are included in the Scheduled Areas but not covered by the Tribal Areas of the Sixth Schedule," pointed out Prof Gangmumei Kamei.

He said, Article 371(C) of the Indian Constitution provides a special provision for the legislation and administration of the hill areas of Manipur in the form of the HAC.

"According to the Manipur Legislative Assembly (HAC) Order of 1972, the 'Hill Areas' mean the areas specified in the First Schedule of the Order," Gangmumei further pointed out.

He also dwelt on 'evolution of administrative in tribal areas', 'the Constitution provision for legislation and administration in Hill Areas: Hill Standing Committee and Hill Areas Committee' .

In his paper, former Member of Parliament (MP) and one of the most articulated tribal intellectuals B.D Behring said, "Tribals in Manipur are not inferior to other tribals in India but we are still facing the difficulty due to ignorance of the meaning of our rights as envisaged in the Articles 15, 29, 30, 46, 275 and 371 (C) of the Constitution of India." B.D Behring also said the tribal people in Manipur are ignorant of Protection on Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act, 1989 and Reservation of Posts and Services for SC/ST, Manipur Act, 1976 and National Scheduled Tribe Commission.

Lamenting that since the last few years, many offices in the hill districts of Manipur have either stopped functioning or operatedwith a handful of staff, B.D Behring said the employees continue to receive their salaries even without attending duties.

He also rued that elections to the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) were held in 2009 but the elected members failed to attend their chores in the hill districts.

He asked the state government to see that those ADCs function in the hil districts instead of in the valley.

The former Rajya Sabha MP then recalled the reason why he had decided to have a -fastunto-death protest.

B.D Behring stated that he had met the Governor and the State chief minister and urged them to make the offices in the hill functional.

Both the Governor and the chief minister assured to look into the matter but till date nothing concrete occurs.

Letpu Haokip, chairman of Committee on Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur (COPTAM) in his paper dwelt on issues like 'Land Record and District Boundary,' MLR a nd LR Act of 1960,' 'Village Authority and ADC Act of 2011,' the border town Moreh rural and urban issue,' 'proposed Jiribam district,' Panchayati Raj/Municipality,' Police Boundary,' 'Recognition of new villages' . Letpu Haokip demanded that for the transfering of hill land records from the adjoining valley districts to their respective hill district headquarters and to maintain the land records by respective ADC.

He said these things are must to check 'interferences' in future.

The COPTAM leader also demanded that the state government should ensure that the original district boundary is restored and maintained on the basis of the villages' land boundary recognised and recorded in the Manipur State Hill People's (Administration) Regulation of 1947 .

Former minister and president of All Manipur Tribal Union (AMTU) D.P.Panmei dwelt on reservation of posts and services for Scheduled Tribes.

He gave reasons on why there are provisions in the Constitution of India to safeguard the Scheduled Tribes.

Somi Keishing while urging the state government not to go ahead of extending the MLR and LR Act of 1960 in the hill districts, has cautioned that such step of the state government is bound to create serious trouble in the state.

Earlier in the day, AMTU general secretary and one of the main organisers of the event Romeo Bungdon in his key note address harped on the importance of culture, custom and tradition.

There was an interaction among the participants posing questions and doubts to the resource persons.