KSO reacts to CM Biren's remark at Van Mahotsav event
Source: Chronicle News Service

Kangpokpi, July 11 2021: Deeply concerned over chief minister N Biren Singh's remark 'all lands belong to the government' made during the Van Mahotsav event on July 5 at Mangjol village in Kangpokpi district, Kuki Students' Organization, General Headquarters (KSO-GHQ) set the record straight.

According to the student body, the CM demonstrated his ignorance of extant laws and does not seem to have any understanding of the doctrine of 'public trust' .

The CM's statement not only undermines the sentiments of the local inhabitants and the tribal populace of the state but also shows the 'Orwellian nature' of his regime with total disregard for all norms of public opinion and democratic values.

A KSO-GHQ statement said that the Kangpokpi-Kanglatongbi Reserved Forest (KK Reserved Forest) still remains a contested site between the local inhabitants and state government and it would have been a wiser act on the part of the latter to refrain from taking up any development projects until the status of the contested site is amicably resolved.

The CM's statement also undermined the history of the hill people and their rights to land ownership.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 not only recognizes and vests the forest rights but also the occupation of such forest land by Scheduled Tribes to address the 'historical injustice'.

This Act gives them the 'right to hold and live in the forest land'.

The Act restricts the state's eminent domain power, it added.

KSO-GHQ further stated that the CM's statement along with the declaration of Koubru Reserved Forest contradict the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1992.Article 5(1) of the Declaration states that 'National policies and programmes shall be planned and implemented with due regard for the legitimate interests of persons belonging to minorities' while adding that the disposition of tribal land and their livelihood is in contravention to the UN Declaration.

It also said that CM N Biren Singh's statement undermined the constitutional protections and safeguards given to the hill tribes under Article 371 (C) of the Indian Constitution in relation to their land ownership systems, land, resources, and their culture.

Further, the statement undermined the existing provisions in the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act' 1960 which exempted the 'hill areas' from the purview of operations of the said Act.

KSO-GHQ also reminded the CM that although the state has the sovereign power to enforce its will upon its citizens and throughout its territory, its powers are not absolute given that the state derives its powers and authority from the people themselves.

Hence, CM Biren's claim of 'all lands belongs to the state' as much as it sounds preposterous undermines the constitutional rights of the hills peoples as enshrined in the Indian Constitution under Article 371 (C) and the existing land relations between the hills and valley under the MLR and LR Act' 1960 .

Keeping in view of the several attempts made by successive state governments to undermine the existing land relations between the hills and plains through the implementation of 'uniform land laws' for the hills and plains and attempts to grab tribal lands in the name of development projects or through the declaration of tribal lands as 'Reserved Forests' or 'Protected Sites' through overt and covert means, such statements only added to the fears and apprehensions of the hills people, thereby, with a potential to widen 'hill-valley divide' in the state, the KSO-GHQ statement added.

It appealed to CM Biren Singh to desist himself from 'populist politics' and at the same time check fringed elements and organizations which have been spreading communal hatred by alleging the Kukis in general and those inhabiting the vicinity of the Koubru Range in particular as 'foreigners' or 'illegal immigrants' and so on.

The KSO-GHQ statement warned that acquisition of tribal lands in the name of any development projects, Reserved Forests, or 'Protected Sites' through overt or covert means or through the use of brute state force will not be entertained at any cost.

Transparency and accountability are the hallmarks of any democratic government.

Inclusive development which takes into consideration the needs and sensitivities of the hills peoples, as well as that, involves them in the development process is the need of the hour, it added.

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