April 24, 2016

Villagers in Manipur wary of losing land to Myanmar

Leery of fencing work along Indo-Myanmar border, a committee of about 40 villages in Manipur has announced it will not allow any government official or work inside their area.

"No government agent shall be permitted to enter these border villages," said Ngachomi Ramshang, the general secretary of 'Chandel-Ukhrul Indo-Myanmar Border Land Protection Committee'.

The committee has been formed to represent the people of 40 tribal villages in Ukhrul and Chandel districts who fear that the central and state governments might allow their land to be ceded to Myanmar, Ramshang said.

He said the Information Centre for Hills Areas Manipur (ICHAM) has been undertaking a border survey in the backdrop of the "undenied fact" that Manipur's territory is coveted through "missing" and "reappearing of boundary pillars deep inside Manipur's territory".

ICHAM also represents people who fear loss of their land to the neighbouring country.

India has been constructing a fence along the 1,624-kilometer Indo-Burma border to control smuggling, drug trafficking and insurgency. (Courtesy of thestatesman.com)

No comments:

Post a Comment