Manipur Shiv Sena president M Tombi on Tuesday alleged the Central government of ignoring the indefinite bandh imposed along the national highway-2 (earlier NH-39) for nearly 10 days by the Southern Angami Public Organisation (SAPO) and questioned if the Centre has any hidden agenda in the matter.
He was speaking to the media at its state head office located at Babupara, Imphal West on Tuesday.
For the last few decades, most Nagaland-based organisations, including insurgents have been attacking the National Highways that reach Manipur and these highways are the lifeline of the people of Manipur. He pointed out that these organisations had been harassing the people of Manipur by using national highways as their tools in their vested interests.
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The indefinite bandh was imposed along the NH-2 by SAPO, demanding withdrawal of the armed personnel and permanent structures from Kezoltsa from March 21.
“Concerning the issue, why has the central government remained silent so far? There are suspicions that there could be some hidden agenda behind the indefinite bandh of SAPO,” said Tombi.
Besides the already existing Indo-Myanmar border issues, SAPO has added another issue, he said. He urged the Central government to seriously look into the matter and form a suitable policy to avoid similar issues in the near future.
Tombi said that the national highway is not only for the people of Nagaland or Manipur but for all the citizens of the country. He stressed on the need for the Central and state governments to upgrade the Imphal-Jiribam national highway and deploy an adequate number of highway protection forces along the highway so that people of Manipur could prevent similar threats or harassment in the future.
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State Shiv Sena strongly condemned the SAPO for the bandh and demanded to immediately withdraw the indefinite bandh.
He further appealed to the people of Manipur not to ignore or sideline the matter as if it is a sole responsibility of the state government. “The time has come for all the people of Manipur to cooperate with each other for a movement,” he added.
The state Shiv Sena will never compromise a single inch of land of Manipur. Moreover, the armed personnel and permanent structures constructed and deployed at Kezoltsa belong to Manipur, he added.
