'Effective enforcement of ILPS can check influx'
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, July 08 2024:
The Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) has stated that effective implementation of Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) can check influx of outsiders into the State, and updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would go a long way in repatriating illegal immigrants who have settled in Manipur.
A large number of people paid rich tributes to Lamjing Meira Sapam Robinhood on his ninth death anniversary at Awa Ching, Imphal East today.
In the course of a sustained mass movement for implementation of ILPS in the State, a large group of students took out a protest rally on July 8, 2015 and they were met with a brutal police crackdown.
Sapam Robinhood, then reading in Class XI at Ananda Singh Higher Secondary Academy was hit by a tear gas shell and he succumbed to the injury.
A large number of people including JCILPS members, students, representatives of different CSOs, family and relatives of Robinhood went to his memorial at Awa Ching this morning and paid rich tributes to the martyr.
The death anniversary function was opened with hoisting of the seven-coloured seven clans' flag and presentation of a Thang-Ta performance.
Speaking on the occasion, JCILPS convenor Th Saratchandra pointed out people's observation that ILPS enforced in Manipur is disappointingly ineffective and it is like a toothless tiger.
He also highlighted the urgent need for an effective ILPS in Manipur.
The ILPS being implemented in Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur are basically similar for all of them are extensions of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873 .
The difference lies in the rules and regulations formulated by the respective State Governments, Saratchandra said.
Fearing adverse reactions from certain communities, the Government of Manipur is still unable to formulate concrete regulations for ILPS implemented in the State, he said.
Contradictory to the public demand to adopt 1951 as the base year for identification of non-local people, the State Government took a decision to adopt 1961 as the base year, he continued.
He said that JCILPS would stick to the public demand for adopting 1951 as the base year.
The cut off base year for ILPS in Mizoram is 1950.Accordingly, non-Mizo residents of Mizoram must possess ILP.
Likewise, the cut off base year in Nagaland is 1963 .
He also recalled the long and hard struggle of the people of Manipur which spanned over three/four decades before the Government of India agreed to implement ILPS in the State.
The JCILPS convenor then highlighted the urgent need to make the Manipur Population Commission fully functional by recruiting the required number of experts and members.
Collection of biometrics and verification of Aadhaar should not be interpreted as implementation of NRC, he said.
Citing MLA Leishiyo Keishing's letter to Chief Minister N Biren which pointed out that illegal immigrants have outnumbered local people in many villages of Kamjong district, Saratchandra said that the Cabinet sub-committee comprising three Ministers set up to identify illegal immigrants went defunct not long after its establishment.
Talking on the ongoing Kuki-Zo aggression, the JCILPS convenor asserted that implementation of NRC should be a mandatory step towards finding a solution to the protracted crisis.
The Government of India can contain the violence within three days but it is only acting as a silent spectator for the past 14 months, he said.
"We must act boldly with the required dose of political will to protect Manipur and the indigenous peoples lest the future generations may spit on our graveyards", he said.
JCILPS co-convenor Haopu Kom said that the Kom community has been and will be participating in every movement for protection of the integrity of Manipur and all her indigenous communities.
Md Kheiruddin Moijingmayum, another JCILPS co-convenor, said that the Meitei Pangals would take active part in any movement for implementation of NRC in Manipur.
Sapam Romesh, father of Sapam Robinhood, expressed keen desire for effective implementation of ILPS in Manipur in order to protect the indigenous peoples of the State.
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