Hundreds of citizens took out a rally demanding National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur on March 28.
A massive demonstration was witnessed in Imphal on March 28 demanding the implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur.
The rally that followed the demonstration staged by students was joined by the vendors of Ima Keithel (all women-run market). The protestors attempted to march to the chief minister’s secretariat. However, they were prevented by the police after a brief tussle.
A large number of student from AMSU, MSF, DESAM, KSA, SUK and AIM turned up at the Khwairamband Keithel and staged a demonstration along with the women vendors.
During the demonstration, they shouted various slogans demanding implementation of NRC in Manipur, setting up a state population commission and checking the influx of immigrants.
After the brief demonstration, the participants marched a rally toward the BT Road.
The rally was, however, prevented from proceeding further at the traffic point near the Western Gate of Kangla Fort.
Talking to the media, coordinator of the six students’ bodies, Salam Open demanded that NRC must be implemented in the state at the earliest.
The state government should also set up the population commission as a long term policy to check ever increasing illegal migrants and protect the indigenous people in the state, he further demanded.
If the demands are not implemented at the earliest, the future of Manipur is at stake, he said.
He demanded that the state government should take up steps to identify the illegal immigrants, while asserting that the abnormal surge of population in some hill districts and emergence of new villages in the reserved and protected forests is a threat to the indigenous people of the state.
Salam observed that new villages were set up in the remote hill villages, particularly in the districts bordering Myanmar by the immigrants who entered the state illegally.
He blamed the illegal immigrants behind the mass deforestation in the hill districts for poppy cultivation which gave a great impact to the environment.
“Such activities of the illegal immigrants are a threat to the indigenous people of the state,” he said.
The coordinator of the student bodies announced that they along with like-minded civil society organisations will continue the protest until the NRC is implemented in the state.
