IMPHAL, April 22: The newly formed Chandel Ukhrul Indo Myanmar Border Land Protection Committee and the Information Centre for Hill Area, Manipur (ICHAM) will jointly boycott both State and Central government agencies entering the border area in connection with border pillars or border fencing till an amicable solution is not brought, said ICHAM President N Rajendro alias Boy during a press conference held today at the residence of AIR former Asst News Editor BB Sharma.
Convenor of the committee D Solomon said ICHAM has approached the concerned State authorities on numerous occasions to re-verify and re identify the State traditional border, which have been met with only negative response from the State authorities.
Now, the committee has no option but to boycott the State and Central government agencies from entering border area in respect with border fencing or erecting border pillars, he added.
ICHAM general secretary Ngachonmi Ramshang supplemented in regard with the border pillar issue, the State government was given a month’s deadline, and with the expiry of the deadline, the newly formed committee and ICHAM have resolved to boycott the government.
Rajendro also said ICHAM with support of the local media had initiated steps to take up the border pillar issue since June 23, 2013, following which on July 22, 2013, a State high-level committee inspected the border pillars; however, failed to bring a conclusive solution to identify the State’s original or traditional border pillars.
He said under much pressure, the State Home secretary along with Central officials re visited the border area again and had ever assured to re-verify the actual borders.
However, much to the dismay of the organisations and the people, the visit led to another visit on December 21, 2015 during which a Chandel DC led team and officials from Myanmar conducted a site cutting at Kotha Khunou which is very unfortunate, he said.
He said that the issue became worse when the State Chief Minister denied his knowledge of the act during an assembly session.
He said that Myanmar government is very gentle in a way that they agree to extend support in any fact finding exercise of the actual and traditional border pillars at any given time.
It is time not to kneel down before the government, he said and added that as the government has turned down their appeals to safeguard the traditional boundary of the State, the committee and ICHAM have decided to boycott the state and central Government agencies from the entering the Indo Myanmar bordering area in Manipur with effect from today.