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| MPP members stage a demonstration in Imphal on Monday. Picture by UB Photos |
Imphal, Aug. 4: Chief minister
Okram Ibobi Singh has convened an all-party meet on Wednesday to discuss
the growing public demand for implementation of inner-line permit (ILP)
in Manipur.
Ibobi Singh yesterday sent letters to all
the political parties in the state, national and regional, inviting at
least two leaders of each party to the meeting, which will be held at
his conference hall at 3pm.
The meet, to be presided by the chief
minister, will fulfil his assurance on the floor of the House during the
recently concluded budget session.
He had told the Assembly that an all-party
meet was required to mount joint pressure on the Centre as two
resolutions adopted by the Assembly in 2012 and 2013 did not evoke any
response from the Centre. The assurance came in the wake of rising
public anger over ILP.
At one point, the government had to shut
down all educational institutions in Imphal West and Imphal East on July
25, 26 and 28 as his government was finding it difficult to contain
students’ agitation in support of the ILP.
But despite the assurance of an all-party
effort, public agitation has not died down with people holding sit-ins
daily in the valley.
The meet is expected to take a resolution
to send a political delegation to New Delhi to be headed by Ibobi Singh
to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider the ILP demand.
Manipur People’s Party president
Nongmeikapam Sovakiran Singh said, “We will attend the meeting and
question where the Ibobi Singh government stands on the issue. Our
future response will depend on that.”
The BJP, which is most vocal in
criticising the state government on ILP, had not decided on attending
the meet till this afternoon.
“We are yet to take a decision on whether
to attend the meeting or not. The Ibobi Singh government is not serious
on the issue,” BJP general secretary M. Asnikumar Singh said.
The MPP today staged a sit-in in front of
the party’s head office here in support of the ILP. After the sit-in,
its members submitted a memorandum to governor Vinod Kumar Duggal,
urging him to implement ILP in the state “to protect the rights of
indigenous people of Manipur under the provisions enshrined in the
Constitution”.
The memorandum said outsiders, including
foreigners and migrants, account for one-third of the total population
of Manipur, according to the 2011 census. If the ILP is not implemented,
the future of the indigenous people is doomed, it added.
