IMPHAL, October 5: The Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee has petitioned the union home minister P Chidabaram, stating that the present state government has disregarded the instructions of the home minister for early settlement of the Sadar Hills issue and the committee will not compromised with its economic blockades and other forms of agitations taken up even with the pressure from the state government.
The statement said that the Chief Minister O Ibobi, has constituted a committee on reorganization of administrative and police district boundaries (CRA&PDB) in total disregard to the demand of the people of the Sadar Hills.
It recalled that three similar committees had already been constituted by previous governments but nothing could have been implemented following such committee’s recommendation.
It said that the Manipur administrative boundaries have never been an issue or under question during the last 39 years. In contrast, committee on re-organistaion of district boundaries automatically come up whenever inauguration of Sadar Hills district as a full fledged district is demanded, it said, adding it has never been an issue while the existing nine districts were created.
In the statement, it further reminded that as per an order of the chief commissioner of Manipur Administration, on January 25, 1962, Sadar Hills was already declared ‘Hill Areas’ for the purpose of giving protection to tribal, which at the same time, is intended to provide exclusion of Hill Areas in the administrative subject of valley areas of the state, it further stated.
Inspite of being aware of the social and political conditions besieging the state, the said committee has been inviting public opinions, suggestions, claims and counter claims on re-organisation of district administrative boundaries only to pave ways for more problems intended to dither the inauguration of Sadar Hills as a full fledged district, alleged the statement.
It held that the committee is found to be a means to brew up communal hatred and should its finding be implemented, there is possibility of the Manipur government in deep communal violence, which otherwise is never expected.
Citing the past experiences of fooling the people on the mere pretext of ‘looking into the matter’, the people of Sadar Hills have now lost faith in the nature of the governance of the state, it irked.
It stated that should the ongoing economic blockade unto districthood enforced by the SHDDC be lifted, it should be done only at the peril of losing inauguration of Sadar Hills as a full fledged district in the cold storage of the state politics. Citing which, it stands firm that the economic blockade and other forms of agitations could not be compromised with the pressure from the state government.
