IMPHAL, April 3: Various non-governmental developmental works under the North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project, NERCORMP, for Upland Areas Chandel District, a project of the North Eastern Council, NEC, M-DoNer, Government of India, is under jeopardy following interference by a local leader of the NSCN(IM), according to a reliable information received from New Delhi by Imphal Free Press.
These projects, with regards to the Chandel district, are implemented under the Chandel District Community Resource Management Society.
Trouble began when a Chandel based NGO, Manipur Border Area Development Society, MBADS, was struck off from the list of partners empanelled with the NERCORMP for carrying out various projects, on the charge of inappropriate use of the funds allocated from the projects awarded to it.
A letter from the director finance of the NERCORMP, Dhrubajyoti Nath, dated December 23, 2015, written to the project manager NERCORM, Chandel District, clearly states this intent that the managing director of the NERCORMP approved the “non-extension of partnership with Manipur Border Area Development Society, MBADS” and that “all dues to or from the NGO, if any, may be cleared before termination of contract.”
The matter however did not end there, for one Hb Rungkhel Anal, kilonser NSCN(IM) of Hnaringkhu village Chandel, intervened on behalf of the NGO in question.
It is however not clear if the NSCN(IM) as an organisation supports Bb Rungkhel Anal’s intervention or whether the latter was throwing in his weight behind the NGO on his individual capacity.
The NSCN(IM) kilonser has since been issuing threats of dire consequences to the functionaries of the local unit of the NERCORMP, asking them to write a clarification letter to their headquarters to have the revocation of the partnership with the NGO nullified.
The NERCORMP Chandel project manager, Santala E. Ronglo, and project technical officer Dr. Sh. Willson Monsang were summoned to the kilonser’s residence and were conveyed this message in person.
A letter apprising the situation to the NERCORMP managing director, Shillong, by the NERCORMP Chandel, project manager also include a note written on February 7, 2016, by the kilonser, telling the project manager to “release MBADS Staff pay from Nov (half) till Jan 2016 and clarification letter to regional office (Xerox copy) written by you must reach to our office within this week. The game to terminate my NGO is played/designed by you alone.”
The complaint further said the kilonser is unwilling to listen to the pleas that the decision was taken by the NERCORMP headquarters and the Chandel office can do little about it. Instead, there have been routine threats issued to the office, it further said.
The NERCORMP headquarter was unmoved by the Chandel units appeal, and instead only asked the state government for security cover of its officials on the field in Chandel.
Responding to a direction from the district commissioner Chandel, the Chandel SP only said they would be able to provide area security cover and not dedicated security to all officials of the NERCORMP Chandel because of shortage of manpower.
This being the case, the NERCORMP project manager for Chandel has tendered her resignation from the project to the managing director NERCORMP, Shillong, asking the organisation to relieve her of her responsibility by April 1, 2016.
An acceptance letter from the NERCORMP headquarters in Shillong however has not been forthcoming. Observers said if the situation is not taken stock of and remedial measures not taken, an ugly ethnic situation may emerge in the Chandel district.