10 Kuki-Zo MLAs to Skip Assembly Session

Guwahati: In what may surcharge the political atmosphere of strife-torn Manipur again as the ruling BJP government is likely to move a resolution in the upcoming assembly session from Monday to preserve Manipur’s territorial integrity thereby rejecting the demand of Kuki-Zo for a separate administration.

It is significant that ten tribal MLAs of Manipur have announced that they will skip the upcoming assembly session that begins on August 21. They have cited security constraints as their reason, since the assembly is in Meitei-dominated Imphal. Seven of these 10 MLAs are from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

These 10 MLAs had recently submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting that posts of chief secretary and director general of police or its equivalents be created for the five hill districts where members of the community are residing since ethnic violence broke out.

They have openly spoken out against chief minister N. Biren Singh, saying that he continues to “wage war against the Kuki-Zo hill tribes by attacking villages in the hill districts almost every day”.

The memorandum had highlighted that it was now impossible for members of the Kuki-Zo community to go to Imphal.

“No Kuki-Zo people can go to Imphal, nor government employees posted in Imphal capital and other valley districts can attend their offices,” it says.

It also added, “Even  IAS and Manipur Civil Services officers, and IPS and Manipur Police Services officer belonging to the Kuki-Zo tribes have been unable to function and discharge their duties as Imphal Valley has also become a valley of death for us.”