The Apunba Imagi Machasing (AIMS), an NGO in Manipur, has submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for setting up of a mental health institute in Manipur to help address challenges arising out of prolonged exposure to insurgency and drugs menace in the state.
AIMS stated in a release that the presence of insurgency for the last 50 years has been made more complex by the presence of elements determined to take advantages for unhealthy indulgence in the international borders. These elements are adept in pretending to be insurgents while simultaneously making inroads into the administrative mechanism as committed to the cause of governance objectives. They are profitably playing the game of Narco-Terrorism. This is manifested inter alia by the fact that huge tracts of land in the mountain regions of the state have been transformed into huge tracts of poppy fields at the costs of natural forests. This is compounded by the fact that clandestine factories have sprung up to convert poppy into Heroin and thereby lowering the street price of Heroin and spreading the impact of drugs-misuse amongst the youths on a massive scale. Thus, a framework has been put in place for coordinated personal aggrandisement mechanisms, it stated.
AIMS stated in the memorandum that there is an urgent need to provide viable alternative means to poppy plantation by environmentally sustainable interventions. Further, there is the need to establish a regional level Mental Health Institute in Manipur along the lines of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, to enable to meet challenges arising out of prolonged exposure to insurgency and drugs-abuse in the state as well as in the region, it added.
“To meet the continuing threat of social corruption by these pseudo elements we must be able to provide alternative means of occupation not only in terms of jobs but also of engagement,” AIMS stated.
AIMS emphasises that only persons who have been cleared by the Intelligence Bureau be appointed as Heads of the Institutions of Central importance located in the state to begin with, in right earnest. As stated earlier there are elements with expertise in pretending to be committed to the national cause, it stated.
For the development of Manipur – under a comprehensive and coherent approach - will have a positive multiplier effect in our neighbouring countries that will (a) enhance our national efforts in countering growing Chinese influence in the region by addressing both the External Challenges and the Internal Imperatives; and (b) while at the same time strengthening the historical and cultural relationships between the peoples of the South East Asian region and the State and the Country.
Here, AIMS highlighted on the need for the development of a new International Highway connecting Manipur with Myanmar via Khamsom in the Ukhrul District and with the Homilin Port on the Chindwin River in Myanmar. The significance of this arises from the fact that the Chinese have already developed the biggest River Port on the Chindwin and in Mandalay coupled by a new township with Educational Institutions from primary to the University Level; this implies that the present Act East Policy initiatives would be under the eye and dominating influence of the Chinese.
Here, two initiatives are paramount - development of the new International Highway through the Ukhrul district would create an advantage of 73 kilometres in distance, linkages and evolution of international relationships under our own ethos and free from the direct prying eyes of the Chinese, the AIMS stated.
Second, there is a need for a powerful qualitative response to the quantitative-oriented approaches of the Chinese. In this, there is a need for establishing an International University in Manipur with an eye to attract South East and East Asian students and scholars with strong South East and East Asia curricula, the AIMS added.
It further stated that the qualitative intervention would create a permanent capacity to care for our interests in the South East and East Asia by creating a long-term convergence of cultural, demographic, historical and political relationships for our International Political Economic Interests.
