Meitei group after meeting Shah: Govt won’t allow separate admin in Manipur

After the meeting with Shah, COCOMI members also met with senior Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials, including former IB additional director and Centre’s pointsman for the Northeast, AK Mishra.

According to the civil society group, it was assured there “there will be no allowance for separate administrations in Manipur”. When asked what this meant, COCOMI spokesperson Khuraijam Athouba said, “Government will not allow a separate administration.”

Ever since the violence began on May 3, Manipur’s Kuki community has been demanding a separate administration for the state’s hill regions, saying it had lost trust in the N Biren Singh government.

The meetings came a day after Manipur CM N Biren Singh met Shah and sought Centre’s assistance in rebuilding homes destroyed in the ongoing ethnic violence in the state.

According to the COCOMI, it was “encouraged to initiate dialogue with responsible Kuki leaders and groups to facilitate problem-solving and peace-building”.

“The Home Minister appealed for peace in the state and requested COCOMI to convey this message to the people. Ensuring the movement and distribution of commodities in the state can be possibly realised with the support from both sides of the communities and necessary deployment of convoys to secure the highways shall be ensured in a few days,” the statement said.

It said the Centre also agreed to address concerns about mass infiltration and was expediting border fencing in the Manipur sector. “The Union Home Minister emphasized a firm stance against all forms of infiltration into Manipur’s territory. Measures are being implemented to register immigrants using biometrics, including retina scans,” the statement said.