KANGPOKPI, February 10: The Kuki State Demand Committee today resolved to reiterate its resolute demand for a separate Kuki state while undertaking that Kuki people will never bow down under any circumstance till a Kuki state is created.
The KSDC in its general body meeting today at the state capital resolved unanimously to start poster campaign and mass mobilization including ‘nation tour’ to enliven and reinstate the legitimate demand of the Kuki people for creation of a separate Kuki state.
The general body meeting resolved to start the campaign by the early part of March said information and publicity secretary of KSDC, George Guite while adding that the promises of the Indian government have always been empty and knee jerk; and that policies of appeasement create fertile ground for strife.
The KSDC leader further continued that the state government has been pursuing determined policies and program, Acts and amendments to annex Kuki ancestral lands and infringe on their rights.
Some of the inapt mechanisms being espoused by the state government vis-a-vis Kukis are being manifested in the form of denial of Sadar Hills District; denial of Tribal Protection under the Sixth Schedule; denial of the Eight Schedule; disparity in development: neglect of Tribal/Kuki areas; rendering Hill Areas Committee non-functional; denial of proportionate representation; land alienation and annexation of Tribal land through state administrative mechanisms, which is being taken up by COPTAM (Committee on Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur) and State Government meddles with chieftains’ rights to deprive them of their land.
“The Kukis of Manipur, under the aegis of Kuki State Demand Committee (KSDC), staged various formed of agitations drawing the attention of the governments to fulfil the demands of the Kuki people under the Indian Constitution,” asserted Guite while adding that disillusioned with the governments’ long overdue denial of a ‘political space’- the right to live in freedom in their ancestral lands-the Kukis took to the streets in demand of Kuki State by restoring Kuki ancestral lands for lasting peace and security in the state we are compel to go forward and pressure the government.
The founding pillar for the KSDC mass campaign is, as they put it, “A separate state for the Kukis within the Indian Union; nothing more, nothing less.”