Chidambaram to visit Manipur districts next week

IMPHAL: Union home minister P Chidambaram will visit the three Naga-dominated districts of Senapati, Ukhrul and Tamenglong in Manipur next week.

Straight after landing in Imphal on November 2, Chidambaram would move to Senapati district headquarters and inaugurate a mini secretariat there, a source said.

The home minister would also visit Ukhrul, Tamenglong and Churachandpur districts before leaving the state capital the following day, the source added. He said the agenda for minister's visit to the three districts was not known.

The minister's visit comes at a time when several Naga civil bodies, spearheaded by the United Naga Council, are demanding an alternative administrative arrangement for the Nagas in Manipur without linking the state government. The agitating All Naga Students' Association, Manipur (Ansam), has already flayed the state government for "provoking the Nagas."

In pursuit of it, the All Naga Students' Association, Manipur (Ansam), imposed a three-day bandh in the four Naga- dominated districts ending Monday midnight. Ansam said the UNC agreed to engage in a tripartite talk with the Centre and the state government following a request of the Union home minister. The process had seen three rounds of engagement (talks). However, the democratic process of dialogue had been subjected to the comfort, approach and position of the state government, added Ansam in a statement.

The UNC, on September 29, served an ultimatum to the Centre to initiate the process for intervention with an alternative arrangement outside the state government within 20 days, it said. "The Ansam was compelled to call the bandh from the midnight of Oct 21 till Oct 24 to reiterate the decision of the Nagas taken on the 3rd Naga People's Convention of July 1, 2010 that the Nagas in Manipur want an alternative arrangement outside the state government," the statement added.