The ST Demand Committee Manipur on Tuesday announced that the permission granted by the deputy commissioner of Imphal West on February 4 for organising ‘Street Corner Meeting with loud speakers’ has been cancelled by the same on Sunday.
Addressing the media at Ima Khunthok-hanbi Sanglen, DMU Complex, the committee coordinating body convenor Laishram Romesh Meitei said that it was cancelled in the view of the prevailing law and order situation and compliance of various provisions of the Model Code of Conduct enforced during Assembly Election 2022, he said.
Romesh said that since 2012, the ST Demand Committee Manipur has been making its demand to the state government to enlist Meitei/Meetei in the Scheduled Tribe list. In this regard, various movements and agitations have been launched from time to time, he said. However, the state government has failed to translate their demand till date, he said.
Although Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said that the demand to enlist the Meitei/Meetei community in the Scheduled Tribe list is reasonable, he is more concerned about maintaining power, he alleged.
He recalled that the committee had halted their agitations for some period due to the prevailing pandemic but they were resumed by holding protests in various places of the state.
The Committee asserted that the Meitei/Meetei community should not be listed under general category; the community is constantly under threat of facing extinction without any constitutional protection or safeguard as the influx of illegal immigrants is increasing.
Romesh said the ILP will not protect or safeguard the constitutional rights of the Meitei indigenous community. With the Asian Highway and railway connection reaching Manipur, the community will be in critical situation unless ST status is conferred to the Meetei/Meitei community, he maintained.
Further, he asked the district magistrate whether the street corner meeting of ST Demand Committee Manipur violated any Covid appropriate behaviour or election model code of conduct.
