IT News
Imphal, June 4:
World Meetei Council (WMC) has submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister of Manipur urging him to apprise the Central Government for inclusion of the Meetei to the list of Scheduled Cast under the Constitution of India.
In the memorandum the WMC expressed apprehension to the claim of ownership at Koubru and Thangjing by some groups.
“The ‘communal’ atmosphere in Manipur caused by certain people who claim ownership of Koubru and Thangjing disregarding and disrespecting the mythology and history of the land has become unbearable that requires appropriate action by the state government”, the memorandum said.
It added that the Meeteis and Nagas who are the native indigenous people can no longer tolerate such obnoxious behaviour.
WMC said that it has also been observing that this section of people intimidating even the state government not to send the necessary reports to the centre as required by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to initiate the process of examining if the Meetei are indigenous people and on that basis whether the Meetei should be listed in the ST list of the Indian Constitution. This is what the saying goes – yongna mapu taanba. Today the hard reality is the Meeteis are no longer the rightful citizens of the state of Manipur. The Indian Constitution has not recognised them as native indigenous people and therefore they cannot enjoy the rights of a citizen in hill areas which constitute more than 90 percent of the area of Manipur.
“Therefore to make the Meetei rightful citizens in their own ancient land WMC on behalf of the Meetei people reiterate its demand to the Manipur government to send the two reports (i) ethnographic and (ii) socio-economic reports of the Meetei to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs so that the Government of India may begin to examine if the Meeteis are indigenous people and on the basis of which if the Meetei could be enlisted in the list of Scheduled Tribes of the Indian Constitution,” the WMC said.
It appealed the Manipur Government to take up the matter without further delay.
