Tribal body wants ADCs in hill districts

IMPHAL: A tribal pressure group, the Indigenous Tribal Front (ITF), has threatened to launch an agitation if the offices of the autonomous district councils (ADC) are not shifted to the hill districts.

Except for Sadar Hills and Churachandpur the ADC offices haven't been shifted to the respective districts. The ADCs of Chandel, Senapati, Ukhrul and Tamenglong are functioning from Imphal under security cover because of Naga civil bodies' opposition to the councils. Last month, the United Naga Council (UNC) urged the Naga people not to associate with any elected members of the Manipur assembly and the ADCs.

Defying the Nagas organisations' stir, including imposition of economic blockades on the two national highways, the state government conducted the ADC polls in two phases in May-June, 2010 in the hill districts of Ukhrul, Senapati, Chandel, Churachandpur and Tamenglong and Sadar Hills under heavy security cover. The Kuki-dominated Sadar Hills council is in Senapati district.

The ITF, however, said the functioning of ADCs from the state capital violates the constitutional provisions of the local self government councils. The body seriously views this as "a distortion of democratic norms and constitutional provisions," added the statement.

If the ADCs are not shifted to the hill districts soon, the blame would lie squarely on the deputy commissioners concerned and the state government, it added.