IMPHAL, July 9: The Sadar hills districthood demand committee has vowed to no longer fall prey to more delaying tactics of the government and has set July end as deadline to break the prolonged pending deadlock of declaring Sadar Hills as a full fledged district of the state.
Briefing media person in this connection on the sideline of a prayer ceremony which was conveyed for rejuvenation of the Sadar Hills district demand movement at KBC centre church Kangpokpi, Tonghen Kipgen, general secretary of the committee stated that we have lost our faith in the government due to their blatant lie of making promises after promises to grant Sadar hills as a full-fledged district.
He further stated that we have learnt that the 40 years of agitation regarding the demands have not worked with the government, and as such the need for a more unique, vigour and more intense modalities have arisen.
The people of the Sadar hills area will no longer become prey to the delaying tactics of the government.
The committee will keenly wait and watch till the end of this month as the government has promised that it will declare the Sadar hill into full fledged district with the inauguration of the completed building construction of Kangpokpi mini secretariat.
The committee will no longer give any room for further delays even in the event of the state government making excuses of technical difficulties or likewise regarding timely inauguration of the mini secretariat when the state government has promised to declare Sadar Hills as a full fledged district, said Tonghen Kipgen, and added that the committee will go on with its plans if the government fail to meet the July end deadline.
“A meeting will be held in the coming days to chalk out strategies which will be unique but peaceful, unrelenting and more vigour and will compelled the government to materialize and implement our long felt needs”, said Tonghen Kipgen.
He pointed out that Sadar has all the requirements to be a full-fledged district. It has about 1.5 lakhs population greater than Chandel district. While Sadar Hills has the needed infrastructure, its topography is also suitable with three assembly constituencies when compared with Chandel district which has only two assembly constituency, he added.
Tonghen further observed the delay of the government to declare Sadar hills as a full fledged district despite meeting the requirement, as a plot to prevent giving more autonomy to the tribals.
This is not only about Sadar Hills but the government has always been ignoring matters concerning the tribal, said Tonghen.
He disclosed that Chief Minister, O. Ibobi Singh personally gave his assurance to the outgoing leaders of the committee in the presence of the three MLAs of the assembly constituencies falling under the Sadar hills to declare Sadar Hills as a full fledged district during the inauguration of the Kangpokpi mini secretariat in the early part of this year.
The prayer ceremony was attended by ADC chairman Kangpokpi, Sh. Seipu, MDCs Kangpokpi ADC, church leaders and various civil body leaders including the Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO), Kuki Innpi Sadar hills, Kuki Women’s Union (KWU) etc.