IMPHAL, June 30: The authority of Aimol Village, located north of Pallel Bazaar along the Imphal-Moreh road, has put an ultimatum to the State government to impose an indefinite blockade if their long standing demands are not met at the earliest.
This was stated by office bearers of the Aimol Tribes Union, Manipur (ATUM) in a press meet in its office at Aimol Tampak on Monday. Ch. Sote Aimol, ATUM’s general secretary and former president, told media persons that the illegal encroachment by various groups of people in a place about 300 feet between Pallel Bazaar and the route leading to Aimol Tampak has been going on for some time.
“Formal requests have been sent to evict these encroachers to the Deputy Commissioner,Thoubal and SDO/SDC, Kakching for quite some time. But, they didn’t act on our requests. We have personally met the concerned MLA of the Kendra DK Korengthang and put pressure on him. The MLA hasn’t done anything after initially promising that he will turn things around,” he added.
He said that ATUM launched various forms of agitations including the blocking of the Imphal-Moreh road last month but to no avail, adding that a memorandum will be submitted to the Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh the next day.
If the illegal encroachment doesn’t stop after seven days from the day of submission of the memorandum, an agitation will be launched to blockade the Imphal-Moreh road on the eighth day, he said.
ATUM general secretary further stated that Aimol Tampak is a small village with Tegnoupal on the east, Tuisorok River on the south, Sekmai River on the north and Pallel on the west, adding that the total population of the village is yet to touch 10,000 and Aimol is one of the smallest tribes.
“The villagers can’t agree to the State government’s decision to acquire 600 acres of land in the village to start various development projects. The people of the village will strongly oppose the State government’s policy,” he said.
Lamenting that, on the other hand, people from different communities now has established their settlements in nine villages at the sparsely populated Aimol Tampak raising apprehensions among the Aimol people whether they will gradually become extinct, he appealed to stop establishing new settlements by other communities other than the ones that already exist.