Newmai News Network
Imphal, Jul 29: An intensive drive against those vehicles inscribed with Meetei Mayek (Meetei scripts) on the number plates has begun in the hill areas of Manipur under the joint aegis of All Naga Students Association, Mani- pur (ANSAM) and the Kuki Students Organisation, Ge-neral Headquarters (KSO- Ghqs) since this evening.
Significantly MEELAL in its MoU with the Govt had agreed that there would be no forced imposition of the same and the vehicle owners are free to inscribe the Mayek or not.
Prior to taking up this move, there was a long joint deliberation of ANSAM and KSO leaders some-where in Imphal under four agendas which include the proposed Municipality Act in the hill areas, establishment of NIT at Langol foothill, the delimitation issue and the Mayek issue.
During the long deliberation, ANSAM and the KSO leaders took a resolution against the inscription of Meetei Mayek on the number plates of vehicles initiated by the MEELAL.
The two student bodies have decided to instruct all their units in the hill areas to ban the entry of vehicles in the hill districts of Manipur whose number plates are inscribed with Meetei Mayek.
ANSAM and KSO have also instructed their units and branches in the hill areas of Manipur to demolish/ destroy all the sign-boards that have been written with Meetei Mayek.
The resolution further asked their units in the hill districts to report imme-diately to ANSAM and KSO-Ghqs if any incident of diktats to inscribe Meetei Mayek on the number plates of vehicles are witnessed so that necessary action can be taken up in consultation with the All Tribal Students Union, Manipur (ATSUM) against the imposition of the script.
Both the students’ bodies have also expressed strong resentment on the stand of the State Government saying that the latter was hell-bent on the activities of the MEELAL’s imposing of Meetei Mayek to be inscribed on all the vehicle number plates by even went to the extent of calling the script promoters’ activities as outlaw and criminal in nature. The student leaders further added that after hav-ing announced and even started cracking down on the MEELAL activists say-ing that the latter’s move was totally unlawful but at the end the State Govern-ment had cordially signed a Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) with the MEELAL leaders.
To this point, a part of resolution of KSO-GHq and ANSAM said, “Inspite of strong direction from the state government against the latest move of the MEE-LAL, the signing of MoU between the Government and the MEELAL agitators has shown disrespect and has ignored the interest of the hill districts of the State. As such the joint sitting urges the Government to disclose if there is any hidden agenda against the people of the hill areas.”
Another resolution of KSO-GHq and ANSAM said that they will oppose any move by the Government to impose the implementation of municipality act in the hill districts of the State.
The resolution of the same agenda said that any developmental activities and administrative policies of the Government implemented in the hill districts of Manipur be as such that they do not threaten the traditional land ownership rights in consonant with customary laws of the hill people of the state but protect them.
On the establishment of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), the two students bodies resolutely to demand the immediate withdrawal of the eviction notice served by the State Government to the inhabitants of the Langol foothills who are residing with legal pattas. ANSAM and KSO then questioned the state government’s decision to establish NIT at the foothills of Langol which is mainly dominated by the tribals.
Both the students bodies then reminded that the people of Churachandpur and Tamenglong had earlier requested the State Government to establish the same in their districts saying that they would donate maximum required land but state government had rejected the request. “Has the State Government started initiating to drive away all the tribals from the valley?” asked the ANSAM and KSO deliberation.
The two students fronts pledged to agitate in the strongest forms if the state government goes ahead with its plan of establishing the NIT at Langol foothills.
The last resolution was on the delimitation issue. The KSO-GHq and ANSAM after the detailed deliberation has urged the state government to implement the delimitation process at an earliest possible time, failure of which will amount to deny the existence of the tribals. The resolution said that delimitation is genuine as per the ruling of the Supreme Court and the Census Report of India (2001).
Finally, the resolution of ANSAM and KSO appeals to all the tribal MLAs/ministers to work unitedly in the interest of the tribal people.
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The Sangai Express
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