Ibobi promises to enact new law to protect indigenous people ~ thupui

Manipur House withdraws bill

Khelen Thokchom

Protesters jostle with police in Imphal on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos

Imphal, Jul 16 : The Manipur Assembly today resolved to withdraw the Manipur Regulation of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant Workers Bill 2015, four months after it was passed, under intense public pressure.
While moving the resolution, chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh assured the House that a fresh bill would be introduced and passed within three months to regulate the entry of outsiders and protect the indigenous people.
The move followed an intense public agitation, spearheaded by the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System, a citizen's conglomerate, which had rejected the bill as "ineffective".

The bill had proposed to register all visitors, tenants and migrant workers with a proposed directorate of regulation of visitors and tenants. The committee said the bill did not have teeth to safeguard the interests of the indigenous people. Among others, it demanded a legislation to disallow outsiders to own land in the state and to fix 1951 as the base year for identifying outsiders in Manipur.
As the ILP movement intensified, protesters and police clashed daily despite imposition of an indefinite curfew in the Greater Imphal area since last week. A Class XI student, Sapam Robinhood, died in a police crackdown last week.
On Tuesday, the Manipur cabinet decided to convene a special session of the state Assembly to withdraw the bill. The House today unanimously resolved to withdraw the bill passed by it on March 16 this year.
"The government will start working on the new bill immediately after the day's session is over. We will hold discussions with the joint committee, legal experts and members of this House so that the proposed bill can protect indigenous people and at the same time be acceptable under the Constitution," Ibobi Singh told the House.
He proposed to head a delegation of legal experts, members of the joint committee and representatives of political parties to New Delhi to consult constitutional experts there before introducing and passing the new bill so that it does not violate any constitutional provision.
The joint committee on ILP rejected Ibobi Singh's proposal to pass a new legislation within three months. It demanded passing of the bill within 15 days. It said they would continue the agitation.
ILP supporters, including Manipur film personalities and women vendors, staged sit-ins and took out rallies in and around the city between 5am and 5pm, when the curfew was relaxed.
A public joint action committee, formed in connection with Robinhood's death, said it would not withdraw its agitation until a new bill was passed and action taken against police personnel responsible for the student's death.