IMPHAL, Aug 31: The national spokesperson of BJP and MP of Rajya Sabha, Tarun Vijay has raised the present issues of Manipur today during the zero hour in the Rajya Sabha.
Raising the issues of re-imposition of blockade on both the highways linking Manipur with rest of the country today during the zero hour in the Rajya Sabha, MP Tarun Vijay said that the government must take emergent action to restore peace and normalcy as people have started losing faith in the efficacy of the Indian state.
He said that the United Naga Council, an organization supported by NSCN (IM) has given a call for 25 days economic blockade on both the national highways cutting off Manipur from the rest of the country.
Tarun further stated that before this Manipur had already witnessed 66 days of economic blockade paralyzing the entire state. The prices of essential commodities have sky rocketed. Cooking gas is selling at Rs 1200 per cylinder and petrol/diesel in black market is available at Rs 100 plus per litre. Eight trucks have been burnt down on NH-53. The non-Manipuris have been threatened by some local insurgent groups to leave Manipur, he noted.
The irony is that long spells of bandh by and blockade of roads have seriously affected the academic institutions. For five months continuously all schools and colleges in Manipur remained closed under terrorist threat making the lives of five lakh students miserable and neither state government nor Central government could provide protection to schools which wanted to carry on their regular classes. This has resulted in an exodus of students from Manipur, whose parents sell their property or take loans to send their children for studies in other Indian cities.
Tarun Vijay also mentioned that thousands of Manipuri state government employees have not been given salaries for the last many months due to delay in the ongoing formulation of MGEL. The condition of Manipur is also worse than Kashmir and the people of Manipur are having doubts if the state is not a territorial part of India. The people are made to live under extra ordinary torture and distress, he added.
