Don’t change administrative set up: Speaker

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Oct 24: In the backdrop of the imminent settlement of the Indo-Naga peace talk, Manipur Legislative Assembly Speaker Y Khemchand has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to take up any action which may change the present administrative setup of Manipur and also not to grant any kind of autonomy to any part of the State.
The letter dispatched to the Prime Minister yesterday was also enclosed with copies of nine resolutions adopted by successive State Governments to safeguard the territorial integrity of Manipur.
It pointed out that Manipur was a sovereign kingdom till it became a protectorate of the British empire after its defeat in the Anglo-Manipuri War of 1891.
Manipur regained her status as a sovereign princely State after the lapse of the British suzerainty following the enactment of the Indian Independence Act (IIA), 1947.
As per the Manipur Constitution Act 1947, a general election was held in 1948 based on universal adult franchise, one of the firsts in South East Asia thereby paving way for Parliamentary democracy and establishment of the Manipur Legislative Assembly under a Constitutional monarchy, the Speaker wrote to the Prime Minister.
Manipur became a Part C State of India on October 15, 1949 following the signing of the Manipur Merger Agreement between the then king of Manipur, Maharaja Bodhchandra and the Union of India.
The ongoing negotiations between the Government of India and one of the Naga insurgent groups, NSCN-IM and the latter’s demand for a ‘Greater Nagaland’ which entails disturbing the territorial integrity of the neighbouring States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur has been a cause of grave concern among the people of the three States, it conveyed. It further pointed out that Manipur literally went up in flames in 2001 with the burning down of the State Legislative Assembly and the loss of many lives when the ceasefire agreement between the Government of India and NSCN-IM was extended ‘without territorial limits’. Manipur is a pluralistic State where multiple ethnic communities co-exist in peace and harmony since time immemorial. Any threat to the State’s integrity is deemed unacceptable and non-negotiable to the people of the State. Therefore safeguarding the territorial integrity of Manipur along with its rich socio-cultural fabric has been and will always be the top priority of the elected representatives of the people of Manipur, it added.