Students rally for NRC implementation
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, November 04 2023: Under the aegis of six student bodies, students of Imphal College took out a rally from the college till Raj Bhavan on Saturday, demanding implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur to curb the influx of illegal immigrants.

During the rally, the students shouted slogans like Implement NRC in Manipur', Identify and deport illegal foreigners', and 'Foreigners cannot be master of Manipur'.

The rally, however, was intercepted by police at Keishampat traffic point, following which a standoff occurred between the police and the students.

The students pushed through the police barricade and continued towards the Governor's gate, where they proceeded to squat on the side of the gate and shouted slogans.

In this regard, the six student bodies' spokesperson Mayengbam Somojit said that the rise in illegal immigration has led to the loss of our forefathers' land.

As such, the people have been calling for updating NRC and deporting illegal foreigners.

However, both the central and state governments are yet to take up any concrete action in this regard, he rued.

Mentioning the detention of 32 Myanmarese nationals during the search operations carried out in Moreh following the killing of Moreh SDPO Ch Anand; Somojit said that the verification of 10 people, who are militants based in Chin State, is a clear example of population invasion in Manipur.

As such, the central and state governments need to flush out the illegal immigrants holed up in Churachandpur.

He then said that the security advisor s claim that the SoO cadres are staying in their respective designated camps is a huge lie.

The Chin-Kuki narco-terrorists are taking advantage of the conflict to wipe out the Meetei community.

However, the Meetei community will not give up without a fight.

Thus, the state government should consider all the above and recommend to the centre for taking up the appropriate action, especially with regard to the absence of SoO cadres in their designated camps, which is a violation of the ground rules of the agreement, he asserted.

Later, the participants in the rally including female students turned back to the starting point where they held a meeting.

The six student bodies - MSF, DESAM, KSA, SUK, AIM and another organisation - which have been asking the central and state governments for the introduction of the NRC in the state stated that implementation of the NRC is the only long-term policy to check the ever-increasing illegal immigrants in the state.

According to chief minister N Biren, the government has set up a Population Commission and asked the Centre to conduct an NRC exercise to detect and deport illegal immigrants.

"There will be two categories of the population � indigenous and permanent settlers.

Those who came to Manipur before 1961, will be treated as permanent settlers and those who came after 1961, will not be treated as permanent settlers," Biren said recently in an event.

However, the students' bodies are demanding that 1951 should be made the base year of the NRC.

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