Newmai News Network IMPHAL | February 9 In poll-bound Manipur “non-indigenous people” have been barred from contesting the ensuing state assembly elections by the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) after the Congress has fielded a Nepali candidate from Kangpokpi constituency. “Political parties in the fray should stop giving tickets to "non-locals" who came to the state after 1951. The committee will not allow this to happen,” JCILPS convenor in-charge BK Moirangcha told a press meet at the committee office, Keishampat. The committee, a conglomerate of citizens, has been spearheading a sustained public agitation to demand introduction of Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Manipur. The agitation was recently temporary suspended due to various factors. The single most momentous episode of the ILP movement in Manipur was the killing of nine anti-ILP bill protesters in Manipur’s Churachandpur district where violence erupted after the state assembly passed three ILP related bills in August 2015. The bills were Protection of Manipur People Bill, 2015, Manipur Land Revenue and land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015 and Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015. But these bills did not see the light of day due to intensified protests launched by civil society groups in the hill districts terming the bills “anti-tribal.” BK Moirangcha said, “Allowing non-indigenous people to stand for the upcoming polls tantamount to giving them the right to govern and control over the indigenous people of Manipur.” Citing historical facts, the committee leader said during the British rule the Manipur durbar under Bodhachandra Maharaj gave residential permits to some Nepali subgroups in 1946 in which the Tarnang was not included. He demanded that candidacy of Khadga Tarnang should be cancelled as he was unable to produce his documents showing he came to Manipur before 1951. The JCILPS has demanded that 1951 should be the cut-off year in determination and deportation of non-locals. “No non-locals will be allowed to stand for any election in Manipur until and unless the government passes a bill and makes it to become an Act to protect the indigenous people,” Moirangcha reiterated. “Giving tickets to non-locals by political parties will be considered gravely,” he warned. BK Moirangcha also demanded that all political parties incorporate the demand of introduction of ILP in their election manifestoes. The two-phase Manipur election is slated to take place on March 4 and 8.
