Manipur braces for NH stir again

IMPHAL: A local pressure group has threatened to launch a five-day economic blockade on NH-53 connecting the Manipur capital with Silchar from June 11 in a bid to put pressure on the Okram Ibobi Singh government to upgrade Jiribam sub-division bordering Assam into a full-fledged revenue district. The Jiribam District Demand Committee(JDDC) has also called a 30-hour strike from Monday midnight in the town,situated about 220 km from here, to press for its demand.The JDDC'sdecision to call the economic blockade and the bandh comes barely a month afterthe people of the Phungyar sub-division in the Tangkhul Naga-dominated Ukhruldistrict raised a similar demand for the area. The people of Sardar hills inSenapati have also been seeking a revenue district status for the area.Jiribam is dominated by various communities such as theMeiteis, the Manipuri Muslims (popularly known as Meitei Pangals), the Bengalisand the tribals and is the only towm in land-locked Manipur to have a rail head.Nevertheless, construction of a new rail line between the sub-division andImphal is underway.On Friday, hundreds of school students took out arally in Jiribam in protest against the government's "failure" to upgrade thesub-division into a district. They held placards reading 'Justice delayed isjustice denied', 'Convert Jirbam into a district' and 'Fulfill our genuinedemand".The JDDC, an umbrella organization of various civil, studentand Meira Paibi (women vigil group) organizations, was set up way back in2006.Since then, it has launched a series of agitations, including bandhs, blockades and boycotting of local MLA Debendra Singh. It was only after chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh and Singh, who is also the revenue minister, assured the JDDC to look into its demand that the organization called off its agitations. But at least two years have passed since then, butnothing happened. After a prolonged silence, the committee resolved in May tointensity its agitations "as the government did not keep its words". It set May30 as the deadline for the government to accord Jiribam the status of a revenuedistrict.Manipur has often suffered the brunt of economic blockadeson highways called by various groups and militant outfits. Last year, petrolprices soared to Rs 170 a litre, while a cylinder of cooking gas cost Rs 1,800as Naga protesters choked the arterial National Highway-39 in protest againstthe Manipur government's decision to not allow NSCN(IM) general secretary ThMuivah to visit his native village, Somdal, in Ukhrul.