The All India Trade Union Congress, Manipur State Committee on Thursday termed the recent IED blast by unknown miscreants on an RCC bridge between Koubru Leikha and Saparmeina along National Highway 2 on Wednesday as an act of cowardice and demanded swift arrest of the culprits responsible for the blast.
AITUC Manipur along with drivers and civil society organisations will launch intense agitations if the state government fails to take necessary actions to arrest the culprits involved, stated a release.
It expressed dissatisfaction that Meiteis are unable to freely commute along the National Highways stating that there have been numerous incidents of bridges being damaged and destroyed, cutting transportations allegedly under the nose of the state government. It further mentioned the prevailing crisis in the state which is entering 12 years with no end in sight.
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It maintained that drivers and handymen commuting along National Highways 2 and 37, the two lifelines of the state have faced untold sufferings owing to rampant extortion, looting, abduction and killings by miscreants and UGs above economic, highway blockades, landslides etc. AITUC has made fervent repeated appeals to the centre and state government pertaining to the situation but to no avail till date, it asserted.
It reiterated its demand to arrest the culprits involved in such misconducts and award them befitting punishments to prevent similar occurrences in the future. AITUC Manipur further insisted to provide Highway protection force at the National Highways of the state to avoid untoward incidents.
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Meanwhile, the Kuki Inpi Manipur on Thursday condemned the recent attempt to disrupt the economic lifeline of the state before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency, and appealed for an immediate Intervention and Impartial Investigation.
The Central investigative agencies should investigate the issue and pursue justice based on evidence and legal principles, not on ethnic or tribal lines which will further fuel the ongoing conflict, stated a release.
Manipur is presently bedeviled by an abundance of security challenges that gnaw at the very soul of the nation’s existence, it said. Such attacks are pervasive and have the potential to exacerbate Manipur’s precarious state of fragility, it added.
