Imphal, Sep 26: The state government is looking for solutions to problems arising out of overlapping of district jurisdictions in certain villages which were discovered with the initiation of the House Listing of Census 2011 with final reports to come from the joint sitting with the concerned MLAs and district administrators in the nearest future.
It may be mentioned that the sudden complication arising out of overlapping of district jurisdictions as reported to the state government by the concerned district administrators recently after the initiation of operation of House Listing of Census 2011 has created a major concern for the state government.
As per the official report received, overlapping of the district jurisdiction in certain villages was reported by the DCs in connection with the House Listing Census.
Taking serious note of the matter was discussed in the cabinet meeting held on June 15 this year and cabinet meeting decided that the Revenue department will furnish a list of all revenue villages, district wise and the hills department will furnish list of all Hill villages included during the last Election to the Autonomous Dustrict Councils of the state, the official source said.
Further the state Cabinet in its meeting held on June 23 this year discussed the matter again, and further decided to constitute a committee headed by the Chief Secretary, Manipur with Principal Secretary (Hills), Commissioner (Home), Commissioner (Revenue), Director (Settlement) and concerned DCs as members to verify the district boundaries and submit a report to the Cabinet to take a final decision on district boundaries.
The official source further added that the Cabinet authorized the committee to examine records with state government departments, maps from Manipur Remote Sensing Application Centre (MARSAC), etc. and obtain inputs, as necessary, through field verification, and accordingly a committee headed by the Chief Secretary, Manipur has been constituted officially after an official order of the state government, the official source added.
The source further mentioned that following the constitution of the high level state committee headed by the Chief Secretary of Manipur, the first meeting of the committee was convened under the chairmanship of the chief secretary on June 24 this year and several decisions including direction to all DCs concerned to submit the list of all disputed villages with their comments to Revenue Department by July 25 with a copy to commissioner (Home), Revenue department to furnish lists of villages of the concerned disputed valley districts to concerned DCs of the Hill districts, Revenue department to furnish comments in respect of the disputed villages to Commissioner (Home), with copies to the DCs within two days, Revenue department to furnish authenticated copies of Gazette Notification regarding creation of the district to Commissioner (Home).
If copies are not readily found in Revenue Department, they may be obtained from Government press, Hill Department to trace out supporting materials compiled by the Delimitation Commission for the District Council headed by Ch Biren Singh, the then Commissioner and share with Home Department for reference, and Home department to see the Satellite Maps available at MARSAC on June 25 this year. Manipur Remote Sensing Agency to furnish bigger Cadastral maps in respect of the disputed villages to Commissioner (Home).
The official source further mentioned that with the directive from the committee, all relevant matters including the materials supplied, cadastral maps of 21 villages by the MARSAC, lists of villages of the districts of Manipur and bifurcation of Imphal East and Imphal West respectively have been collected from the revenue department.
After all these official documents were received Chief secretary, Manipur along with the committee members on July 15 this year reviewed the matter and recommended that a total of 107 villages have been listed as overlapping villages, and out of these, 76 villages including 12 villages in Imphal West, seven villages in Imphal East, five villages in Thoubal district, 29 villages in Senapati District, eight villages in Chandel District and 15 villages in Churachandpur district and four more villages are confirmed as unrecognised villages.
The people concerned within the disputed district border are seriously concerned and are awaiting a final result from the recommendations of the joint sitting with concerned MLAs and district administrators as advised by the state Cabinet recently, the source added.