More than seven lakh ‘tourists’, who entered the state of Manipur in the last seven years, are unaccounted for. And the state government does not have specialised agency to track the movement of these so-called tourists in the state. It is indeed a nightmarish situation. The dictionary meaning of ‘tourist’ is a person travelling or visiting a place for pleasure or a member of sports team that is playing a series of official games in a foreign country. If we go by this definition, only a few outsiders would qualify the term ‘tourist’. There are two sets of tourists in the country which is foreign tourists and domestic tourists. The so called foreign ‘tourists’ are mostly people who come to the state either in official capacity as representatives of their country or NGO representatives. But the number of foreigners, who come to the state as real tourists, are very few. So is the case of domestic ‘tourists’. Most of the outsiders who had come to the state are in fact people who come in search of work or say cheap labour force. These are people from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Orissa and some other states. First these labourers come alone but after a year or so they bring their families. This is a typical Nepali migration style. According to figures given by the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS), the number of outsiders staying in the state has exceeded the number of tribal population in the state and it may overtake the population of majority community at any point of time. As per figures maintained by the Tourism Department of the state, the number of tourists which entered the state from 2005-06 to 2011-12 accounts to 7, 10, 285. Out of this, the number of foreign tourists who entered the state in the last seven years is 2, 780. The whereabouts and the stay of the foreign tourists are tracked regularly by the state CID (Special Branch) while the state government is yet to have an official agency to track the movement and period of stay of the domestic tourists who had entered the state. And the state is yet to ascertain whether the domestic tourists had gone back to their respective states or whether they are still staying in the state. According to guidelines issued by the government of India, a tourist may stay in the state for a maximum period of six months after which if someone wants to stay for a further period of time he or she has to go back to his home state and apply again for re-entry in the state. The state CID (Special Branch) keeps records of every foreign tourist entering the state with regard to the purpose of visit, his or her detail particulars and intended period of stay in the state right from the Tulihal Airport to the respective police stations they are going to move and stay. Meanwhile, the state has been neglecting the part of domestic tourists and their whereabouts. It is not a question of whether the Inner Line Permit system is enforced in the state or not. Even if ILP is enforced in the state, the migrant workers will still find a way to sneak into the state of Manipur, as they did in Nagaland where ILP is in force. The question is about control and management of outsiders. There is a need for a special agency to check and control the so-called domestic tourists. The state police recently conducted a broad survey of outsiders staying in the hotels and rented houses and it has been able to establish an approximate number of outsiders. And it ended. How do we deal with this problem? The entry of these outsiders had led to the loss of jobs for many local workers. And it is a serious matter, which need to be tackled by taking into consideration views from every stakeholders in the state.
