Demand for protection of indigenous people
Public meet urges State for pro-active action
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 19 2016: A public meeting held today at Bishnu-pur Keithel has resolved to urge the State Government to take up all possible measures in order to effectively check incessant influx of migrant workers into the State.

The meeting held today was one of the series of district level meetings organised by JCILPS on the people's movement being spearheaded by them for enactment of a constitutional safeguard to protect indigenous people of the land.

To delete names of all non-Manipur peoples from the State's electoral roll and stripping them off their voting rights was another resolution of the meeting.

All political parties active in the State should take due responsibilities so as to transformed the three Bills passed by the Manipur Legislative Assembly on August 31 last year into Acts, reads the third resolution.

Establishment of population commission, land re- forms commission and enactment of a land policy followed by identification of all 'outsiders' at the earliest was the fourth resolution.

Many speakers who addressed the meeting pointed out that the Government had agreed to these points with AMSU and AMSCOC in the past and again with JCILPS recently.

The meeting endorsed the non-cooperation movement being spearheaded by JCILPS.

Under this movement, people would stop selling land and renting rooms/houses to outsiders.

Civil society organisations active in Bishnupur district also agreed to extend unstinted support to any movement that may be launched by JCILPS.

JCILPS convenor Khomdram Ratan, co-convenors BK Moirangcha, Advocate Arjun Telheiba, Haopu Kom, Kheiruddin Shah, Ksh Somorendro, Apunba Nupi Lup Bishnupur president L Pramo and Nambol Meira Paibi Apunba Lup president M Shanti attended the meeting as presidium members.

BK Moirangcha decried that the State has been acting as a silent spectator when construction firms and labour contractors have been challenging the very livelihood of local people by way of bringing large number of migrant workers into the State in illegal manner.

According to the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979, all migrant labourers should be registered with the State's Labour Department.

They should also obtain licences from the concerned authority.

However, all these norms and rules are being violated knowingly by construction firms and labour contractors.

Haopu Kom asserted that the three Bills passed by the Manipur Legislative Assembly on August 31 last year do not infringe upon the rights and interests of hill people in any manner.

On account of false propaganda churned out by some groups of hill people, the Bills have been given a negative image.

But the issue is an internal matter of Manipur, Haopu Kom rued.

Citing the Census report of 2011, Khomdram Ratan said that the population of non-local people in Manipur has crossed 10 lakh.

Before Manipur was merged into the Indian Union, ILPS was in force under the Eastern Bengal Frontier Regulation.

Under this mechanism, non-local people could be easily identified.

But the ILPS was abolished by the then Chief Commissioner Himmat Singh.

The sorry fate of Tripura is known one to all and the issue of immigrants is becoming more and more vexed in Assam.

It is the small hill tribes who would be first swept away by the influx of immigrants.

As such, there is a growing need for a sustained and extensive civil movement, Ratan asserted.

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