The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has demanded the state government to form a high-level committee to inspect, review all the disputed areas along the Indo-Myanmar Border. The MPCC also warned of launching various forms of agitations if the state government fails to translate their demand into action.
Addressing the media at Congress Bhawan, BT Road on Friday, MPCC vice-president Hareshwar Goshwami said that as a response to people’s movement, the state government writing to the Central government to halt border fencing construction is appreciative. However, the state government focusing only on border pillar 80 and 81 is unfortunate as disputes also exist in other parts, he said.
He further said that the total stretch of India-Myanmar border is around 395 km and out of this, around 35 km is still unclear.
The disputed areas are border pillar 64 to 68 (Tuivang Molcham area), border pillar 75 to 73 (Howlenphai areas), border pillar 77 to 79 (Tumu Moreh) and border pillar 88 to 95, he stated.
The Indian Government has the knowledge of all these disputed areas and even the present Union Minister of State for External Affairs RK Ranjan had published about losing many kilometres from the Tuivang Molcham area at one point of time, he said.
As such, the state government urging the Central government to halt border fencing construction only in border pillar 80 and 81 and neglecting other areas is unfortunate, he said, adding that from border pillar 80 and 81, it’s just around 1 km, which is lost.
He also said that MPCC had visited disputed areas of the India-Myanmar region on Thursday. They came to notice that construction work along border pillar 80 and 81 is still going on despite the fact the state government had sent a letter to halt it. The construction work is on the verge of completion. The state government should take immediate action to stop the construction work, he said.
Hareshwar recalled that when people had raised movement against the India-Myanmar border pillar in 2015, the then ruling party, the Congress had immediately stopped the construction of border fencing.
The issue again erupted during the BJP government and as such the state government should take up the initiative and address the issue without losing a single inch of land from Manipur, he said.
He said that the said high-level committee should be formed and inspect the disputed areas in the presence of experts, civil voluntary organizations and media persons. If the state government fails to take up the steps, the MPCC will launch various agitations, he warned.
He also expressed condemnation over media persons being hurt during border pillar agitation while reporting.
