Protesters take out a rally in Senapati district on Friday.
Imphal, Aug. 21 : United Naga Council, the apex body of Nagas in Manipur, today called a total indefinite bandh in all the Naga-inhabited areas of the state from 1am tomorrow, demanding that these areas should not be bifurcated without their consent.
The council will impose economic blockades on National Highways 39 (Imphal-Dimapur road), 53 (Imphal-Jiribam road) and 150 (Imphal-Jessami road), allowing no commercial items to move along these routes.
The bandh call came as the Sadar Hills District Demand Committee’s agitation for upgrading Sadar Hills subdivision in the Naga-dominated Senapati district into a full-fledged district entered the 20th day. The committee had imposed an indefinite economic blockade on NH 39 and NH 53 on July 31 and extended it to an indefinite strike in Sadar Hills on August 2. The blockade on the state’s supply lines has created a crisis of essential commodities.
A public interest litigation, seeking reopening of the supply lines, was filed in the Imphal bench of Gauhati High Court by social worker R.K. Joysana, a resident of Moirangkhom here, on August 16. Terming the blockade illegal and unconstitutional, the PIL appealed to the court to direct the Centre, state government and the committee to take immediate steps to lift it and restore normal supply.
The hearing of the petition has not been fixed yet and is expected to be taken up next week. Hearing of cases have been disrupted since August 17 as lawyers, under the banner of High Court Bar Association, Manipur, have stayed away from courtrooms citing fuel scarcity as the reason.
While the government is plying supply trucks between Imphal and Jiribam under security, it has made no attempt to reopen NH 39, where 14 supporters of Sadar Hills district are holding a fast-unto-death since August 16 at two places in the subdivision. Police admitted seven of them to the Kangpokpi health centre this evening after their condition deteriorated.
N. Biren Singh, the minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, said the Imphal-Jiribam road would be used as the supply route with security escorts. He said 110 tankers had left Imphal this morning along the road to lift fuel from Ramnagar, 47km from Silchar. Earlier fuel was lifted from Khatkhati in Assam. He said 34 loaded tankers had left Jiribam for Imphal last evening. “We hope to improve the fuel situation in the near future as the distance to Ramnagar is shorter than Khatkhati,” he added.
Chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh called on home minister P. Chidambaram in New Delhi today to discuss the serious situation arising out of the protests by residents of the Sadar Hills Autonomous District Council areas. Representatives of the Sadar Hills District Demand Committee, sitting legislators and former MPs gathered in Delhi to press for their demand. They will meet Chidambaram tomorrow to work out a solution.