Newmai News Network
Tahamzam (Senapati) | January 27
The next round of ‘tripartite talk’ on the district creation issue has been postponed, again. This is the third time that the talk has been postponed.
The last round of talk was held on September 1, 2018 in Senapati district headquarters. In that round of talk, the participating parties had decided to have the next round of talk in the first week of December, 2018. However, it did not happen. On December 11, 2018, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India, issued a notice informing that the ‘next round of talk’ had been fixed for January 25, 2019, only to be further postponed it to January 28, 2019. Now, the MHA has fixed the next round of talk for February 16, 2019. However, the United Naga Council (UNC) has reservation with the new date.
Sources from the UNC informed Newmai News Network that the Nagas’ seed sowing festival, the Lui-Ngai-Ni, is on February 15 which is usually a mega affair. Given the hectic works and preparations of the festival and the usual post festival related work-loads, the UNC has expressed its inability for talk on February 16. The sources further said that the Naga body had already intimated the situation to the Ministry of Home Affairs in this regard. It is expected that the MHA may re-schedule the date of the talk by consulting with the UNC.
It is worth noting here that, the previous Government of Manipur had created seven new districts on December 8, 2016. In protest against that act of the Manipur Government, the UNC had imposed 139 days of economic blockade along the national highways which pass through Manipur. After the lifting of the blockade, the first round of talk was held on March 19, 2017 followed by several rounds of talk. The talk is still continuing on the issue. The UNC has been demanding that the December 8, 2016 decision of the Manipur Government should be “rolled back”. The tripartite talks have been moderated by the Ministry of Home Affairs from day one.
