Students offering floral tribute during the realisation day function held in memorial of the martyrs who were killed during a demonstration demanding the implementation of the Inner Line Permit in the state.IMPHAL, April 17: Implementation of the Inner Line Permit in order to save the indigenous people, tradition and culture of the state remained the major call of the various speakers during the observation of the 31st Realisation Day (Meekap Thokpa Numit) which was organized today by All Manipur Student’s Union at Singjamei Hao ground.Speaking at the occasion, former president of AMSU, Y. Priyokumar called upon people of the state to come forward and pressurized elected representatives of all constituencies of the state to consider and discuss the Inner Line Permit at the state assembly and implement it at the earliest before the outsiders outnumbered the locals in the state.Citing the case of indigenous Tripuris who were outnumbered by outsiders in Tripura as example, he maintained that it is high time that the people of the state realized the alarming danger lurking ahead and wake up to tackle the problem. He also stated that in states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, etc, the ILP is well utilized which has helped the respective states in garnering state resources and putting away the danger of outsiders influx in their states.Giving a brief account on the influx of outsiders in the state, Dr Moirangthem Manimohan, senior geographer, Directorate of Census Operations said that according to an earlier Census report of India, in the year 1881 out of the total population of around 2 lakhs people in the Manipur, the outsiders constituted of about only 2 percent or just about 150 individuals of the total population. During the said period, the Meiteis constituted about 59.6 percent or around 1.34 lakhs of the total population and the tribal constituted about 38 percent of the population. The Meitei Pangals numbered around 4884 individuals only, he added. He further observed that according to the 2001 census, even though the population of the Meiteis has increased since 1881, the total percentage of the Meitei Population has decreased from 59.6 percent in 1881 to just 48 percent in 2001. He further asserted that the outsider population in the state has increased to 6 percent in the state from just 2 percent in 1881.Failure to maintain implementation of the caste census which was employed in the country till 1931 has resulted in the failure to ascertain the exact number of separate population of the separate caste in the state, he maintained. He further maintained that the influx of illegal immigrants in the state is sometimes aided by local communities of the state.He also maintained that during the Census drive most immigrants hide their original mother tongue and declare Manipuri as their mother tongue so as to enable longer stay in the state.Lastly, maintaining that the existence of many separate student bodies in the state has weaken the students of the state, he appealed to the student bodies in the state to unite and strengthen the students as is seen in other states like Nagaland, Assam.Another speaker at the function, prof Dr W Nabakumar, dept of Anthropology, stated that the lack of work culture amongst the locals of the state has resulted in outsiders controlling reins of economic sector of the state. He opined that inability of the indigenous people to compete with outsiders in work skill is another factor which is a negative sign. Indigenous people should strive hard to inculcate work culture then only “we can outdo the outsiders”, he observed. The observation started with the hoisting of the official flag of AMSU at historic monument at Pishum Chinga, Singjamei. The observation was attended by former president of the AMSU, Lourembam Dilip, president AMSU Thokchom Suresh, Department of Anthropology, MU Prof. Dr. W. Nabakumar, sennior Geographer directorate of census operation, Manipur Dr. M Manimohan, former AMSU president, L. Sharatchandra among others.The observation has been held annually since 2007 on April 17 with the theme, ‘Campaign for the protection of indigenous peoples of Manipur’. Meanwhile a blood donation camp was also opened at the venue of the observation organized by the AMSU.
