With the swift response from the Home department of Manipur, Churachandpur Police Station, Churachandpur Traffic Control Office and Churachandpur Traffic Point have removed ‘Lamka’ from their addresses on Google maps; however, the same has remained in many of the government offices including mini secretariat of Churachandpur.
The Imphal Free Press had published a report highlighting that almost all the addresses of Manipur government offices in Churachandpur district have been found renamed as ‘Lamka’ including Churachandpur Police Station which has been changed as ‘Lamka Police Station’ on Google Maps despite the prohibition imposed against such activities.
ADGP L Kailun informed the IFP that the renaming of the addresses was done by Google through an algorithm and not by the government as such. The addresses have been reverted back to the correct ones, he stated.
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The Mini secretariat office building is located inside the campus of the deputy commissioner’s office; however, the issue appears to have been ignored by the authority concerned.
In Google Maps, almost all addresses of Churachandpur district were replaced with ‘Lamka’ from ‘Churachandpur’ except for financial institutions, banks.
Following the conflict which erupted on May 3, renaming of address as ‘Lamka’ instead of ‘Churachandpur’ has been increasing.
Meanwhile, there were reports of renaming the sacred Thangjing hill as ‘Thangting’ and the recent erecting of a ‘Cross’ by replacing the shrine of Ibudhou Thangjing while renaming the hill as ‘Mount Olive Prayer Mountain’.
The renaming of the religious site of Meitei was carried out by the Kuki-Zomi community against the Supreme Court’s order of December 16 last year. The order directed the Manipur government to safeguard the sanctity of all religious sites with four hectares of Thangjing ranges protected under the ‘Manipur Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1976.
Authorities have allegedly not taken any action so far against such a violation of the Supreme Court and state government’s order.
