Continuing protests have affected life in Manipur, with essential goods vanishing from shop shelves and prices shooting up.
From Friday midnight, the Kuki Women’s Organisation imposed a 72-hour
highway blockade. Lorries and buses could not ply on National Highway
no. 37, a 222-km mountain stretch connecting Imphal with Assam.
From Monday, the Committee on the Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur, is imposing a 72-hour blockade.
Government employees took mass leave on Friday and Saturday, demanding
implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. The
government has not invited the leaders of the two employees’
organisations for talks.
Many high-demand items have vanished from the market. Prices of fruits,
vegetables, meat, fish and eggs have shot up. Transporters find it
impossible to bring rice, sugar and other PDS items. But the government
has not moved. Police and paramilitary forces are not being deployed in
vulnerable areas. Neither are they escorting lorries and buses.
The Kuki Women’s Organisation has been demanding protection of tribal
land. The tribal people fear that the State government will include
tribal lands in a district proposed to be formed by upgrading the
Jiribam subdivision of Imphal east district.
In the past, the Jiribam district-hood demand committee had clarified
that the proposed district shall not include any tribal land. Similar
demands are made by Nagas whenever the demand for a separate district
for Kukis gains momentum. Since the villages of all communities are
located side by side, creating a new district after excluding some is
not possible.
