The Liangmai Naga Council, Manipur, has requested for early implementation of National Register Citizens (NRC) while also raising its objection to the setting up of semi-permanent relief camps or separate administration unit for the Kukis affecting the Liangmai ancestral land in Manipur.
In the memorandum signed by council president R Machundoubou, and submitted to Chief Minister N Biren Singh, the Liangmai Naga Council, Manipur sought the chief minister's intervention.
The council stated there has been an abnormal growth of the Kuki population in the nineties onwards specially in the general area of Koubru Range, which is a well-known fact. This abnormal growth could be attributed to many factors and one such unmistakable factor was uncontrolled influx of illegal immigration mainly from Myanmar (Burma) being facilitated for electoral gain in the last seventy years in the state, the council added.
“Today, due to the gross negligence of Manipur government and its machineries, the population of illegal immigrants has overwhelmed the demographic landscape of the state, especially heavy settlement in the well-defined area of the Liangmais. At this abnormal growth rate, the days are not far off when the indigenous people will be displaced and faced the status of refugee in their own land,” Machundoubou stated in the memo.
The council continued that to add on to the unprecedented growth of Kuki population/villages, the relocation/migration of displaced people along IT Road due to ongoing violence has caused unrest amongst the indigenous Liangmai population as the relocation may lead to encroachment on our land unless strict vigilance measures are implemented.
The state government should maintain a detailed record of the displaced people who have sought shelter in various relief camps and villages of IT-road and Koubru ranges under Kangpokpi districts and ensure that the same figure should be returned to their respective villages/districts whenever normalcy returns, it stated.
The council also objected to displaced people staying permanently in their area.
“There should not be any permanent settlement of these displaced people in our area. As setting of relief camps in the area will give an easy access to establishment of new villages, the state government should implement a mechanism to check and curb such mushrooming of villages in the area,” it stated.
It is to reiterate that the Liangmai villages settled along the Koubru ranges of Kangpokpi, Senapati and Tamenglong have well defined and distinctly demarcated village boundaries with one another which are clearly marked by permanent features such as hills, ridges, rivers, streams and other permanent landmarks.
In Liangmai ancestral land there is no vacant land or no man's land; rather every land, rivers, streams, valleys, falls, hillocks, etc. are with names and every land has its owner, except the community land.
Therefore, the demand for a separate administration in Manipur by any community should not touch an inch of land of Liangmais in Manipur, the council said.
The ultimate solution, to ensure checks and balances over the unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants and stop land encroachments, is the implementation of NRC, the council suggested. Therefore, the Liangmai Community urged the state government to expedite the implementation of NRC so that only genuine citizens of Manipur/India coexist harmoniously, it stated.
