The violence in Manipur has now stopped. However, it will take time for the situation to become normal.
In Churachandpur district, curfew was lifted from 7 am to 10 am on Sunday, so that people could buy essential goods.
As soon as 10 o’clock, the army and the Assam Rifles conducted a flag march in the entire district.
Violence started from Churachandpur district on April 27, which spread across the state.
So far 58 people have died in this violence. More than 100 people are injured. According to the army, so far more than 23 thousand people of all communities have been rescued and sent to military camps.
14 companies of security forces have been deployed in the state. The central government is going to send 20 more companies to the state.
Rest of the states of the country have stepped up the campaign to rescue their students present in Manipur.
On Sunday, Nagaland evacuated 676 people, Sikkim 128 and Maharashtra 22 from Manipur.
BJP MLA Dinganglung Gangmei has said that Meitei community is not a tribe and it has never been recognized as such.
He said that giving these orders is not in the jurisdiction of the High Court. Only the state government can take a decision on this. This order is illegal and should be quashed.
He said that the High Court should have understood that this is a political issue and the High Court has no role in it. This decision of the High Court led to misunderstanding and increased tension among the tribals.
He has demanded the Supreme Court to put a stay on this order of the High Court.
The Supreme Court will on Monday hear a batch of pleas on the Manipur situation including one by ruling BJP MLA challenging the high court order on the issue of Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community and a PIL by a tribal outfit for an SIT probe into the violence that rocked the northeastern state last week.
A bench of chief justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narashima and JB Pardiwala is scheduled to hear the matter
Manipur CM N Biren Singh held an all party meeting on Saturday to handle the situation in the state.
In the meeting, he said that everyone should work to reduce the tension and normalize the situation by moving away from the party line. Everyone agreed on this as well.
In view of the situation in the state, the National Testing Agency has postponed the NEET-UG exam in the state.
The students who have got Manipur center will have their exams later. 1100 people of the state have taken shelter in Assam. Aerial surveillance is also being done along the Indo-Myanmar border.
Mobile internet was banned on Friday. Orders were given to shoot at sight the rioters. Also, trains going to Manipur were stopped.
In view of the violence, curfew was imposed in 8 out of 16 districts of the state. Now gradually curfew is being relaxed in these areas.
Half of the population in Manipur Meitei community has more than half of Manipur’s population of about 38 lakhs.
The Imphal Valley, which covers about 10% of Manipur’s area, is dominated by the Meitei community.
Recently, the Manipur High Court has issued orders to the state government to consider the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST).
The people of the Meitei community argue that they had the status of a tribe in the princely state before their merger with the Indian Union in 1949.
In the last 70 years, the Meitei population has decreased from 62 percent to around 50 percent. The Meitei community is demanding reservation for its cultural identity.
The Naga and Kuki tribes of Manipur are against giving reservation to the Meitei community. The Nagas occupy 90% of the state’s area and the Kukis form 34% of the state’s population. They say that 40 of the state’s 60 assembly seats are already in the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley.
Politically, the Meitei community is already dominant in Manipur. The Naga and Kuki tribes fear that reservation for Meitei in the ST category will lead to division of their rights.
As per the existing law, the Meitei community is not allowed to settle in the hilly areas of the state.
In August last year, Chief Minister Biren Singh’s government ordered the removal of the Naga and Kuki tribes living in the forest area of Churachandpur, terming them as intruders. Naga-Kuki were getting angry with this.
The Meiteis are Hindus, while most of the Nagas and Kukis of the ST category follow Christianity.
