Manipur: COCOMI volunteers force govt employees to vacate offices in Imphal

Imphal: Volunteers of an Imphal valley-based civil society organisation on Wednesday forced government employees to leave their offices as part of a two-day shutdown of state and central government offices, officials said.

Volunteers of the student wing of Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) entered the secretariat and the directorate of transport office, located just a few metres away from the Manipur Police headquarters and the CM bungalow, and asked employees to leave everything behind, they added.

They even attempted to lock the gates, but were prevented by security officers.

Volunteers also entered the forest head office at Sanjenthong and the sub-divisional officer building at the DC Complex in Porompat, Imphal East district, and forced employees to leave despite the deployment of a large number of security personnel. The protesters managed to lock some office doors within the office complex, officials said.

A large number of security personnel, including CRPF, were deployed in government offices across all valley districts and Jiribam.

Coordinator Dhanakumar Meitei of COCOMI Students Front told reporters, "We started our campaign by shutting down state government offices. We hold government officials responsible for failing to restore peace and ending violence. We also urge government employees not to come to office."

On Tuesday, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had appealed to COCOMI not to launch any agitation.

COCOMI coordinator Thokchom Somorendro said the state government had failed to act on the NDA resolutions to conduct mass operations against Kuki militants within seven days and to remove AFSPA from areas where it was recently imposed.

"As a result, the organisation decided to shut down all state and government offices for two days." he added.