Scrap SoO : MPDF
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, July 01 2023:
The Suspension of Operation (SoO) should be scrapped immediately to contain the unprovoked communal riots caused by the Kuki militants, said Manipur Peoples' Democratic Front.
It is the responsibility of the Government of India to bring peace, it asserted in a statement today.
While law and order, by the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution, is listed as a State subject, the onus to maintain law and order in Manipur now resides with the Centre, it said.
The Government of India, by appointing a Security Advisor, has removed the power of Home from the State Chief Minister.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Centre to contain the violence and restore normalcy, it added.
The MPDF asserted that the Kuki militants' present aggression in Manipur will have internal and external ramifications in India's security.
It continued that the present crisis is a result of the failure of the successive Governments, Ministers and MLAs since 1972, it said.
The Governments and the elected leaders at the time failed to grasp the developing problems.
They failed to take serious notes of the Kuki militants and their activities in the hills and on the National Highways including the installation of bunkers, it added.
Churachandpur district is merely 65 kilometres from capital Imphal and the State Government's inability to know what Kuki militants are planning there is indeed State's administrative failure, MPDF said.
It urged the Centre to scrap SoO to end Kuki militants' communal riots.
If the Centre is unable to contain the violence perpetrated by the Kuki militants, it should give back power to the State Government to end "terrorism", said MPDF.