We are the Change Manipur- a body of individuals formed to highlight and address the concerns being faced by the public in the state with members comprising of students, professionals, businessman, entrepreneurs, and eminent retired senior citizens submitted a memorandum to the President and Prime Minister of India on the decades long denial of settlement rights to the valley people, and disproportionate population distribution between hills and valley vis-à-vis the three bills passed in the Manipur Legislative Assembly dated August 31st, 2015. Addressing the present need for the approval and implementation of the ‘The Protection of Manipur People Bill 2015’, ‘The Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill 2015’ and the ‘Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill 2015’, which were passed by Manipur Assembly on August 31, 2015. The purpose of the memorandum was to present a true picture of the misery and sufferings of the Meiteis/Meeteis and Meitei/Meetei Pangals (Muslims) consequent upon the recurring blockades of the national highways, discrimination in terms of land ownership rights of Meitei and Meitei Pangals in the hills, relentless false propaganda of discrimination, artificial ethnic, racial and cultural differences with Meiteis/Meeteis, for political motive to gain administrative secession from the Manipur State have threatened the age-old peaceful co-existence of all communities in Manipur. The prominent points highlighted in the memorandum were:- Sinister intent to exclude Meiteis/ Meeteis from living space in the hills; The Tribals’ claim of so called ethnic, social and cultural differences; Quota system for the Tribals; Control of the highways by the Tribals and consequent recurring blackmail of the national highways which are the lifeline of the valley people, and Progress confined to the valley areas.
