Mail News Service
\nImphal, July 8 : Friends advisor KB Sharma on fast who launched fast to demand implementation of ILP was arrested yesterday and produced before court today.
\nThe protest demonstration was organized at Uripok and by Lamjao Tongba Gram Panchayat under the aegis of federation of Regional Indigenous Society of Manipur (FRIENDS) at the Community Hall of Yengkhom Leirak Club. A sensitization programme on ILP system was also organized as a part of the protest.
\nOnce the ILP system is put into operation in the state a methodical investigation will be conducted by the concerned authority against all the migrants in Manipur, Sapamcha Jadumani, president, FRIENDS said during the ILP sensitization programme.
\nHe said implementation of ILP system will also help the youth of the state to get more opportunities in pursuing academic and professional careers.
\n\u201cWe should preserve work culture and that indigenous people of the state should take up jobs such as hair cutting, cobbling, etc,\u201d he suggested.
\nDr Khomdon, convenor, FRIENDS who was also speaking at the event accused the politicians in the state of showing hesitation in implementing ILP system in Manipur because a number of migrants have been registered in the state electoral roll. Criticizing Chief Minister O Ibobi, Dr Khomdon also said the Chief Minister is unwilling to implement ILP system in the state as he is afraid of AICC president Sonia Gandhi who may ask him whether he is not a real citizen of India.
\n \u2018Inner line Permit\u2019 introduced by the British India as \u2018Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act on 27th August 1873\u2019 for the sake of peace and social harmony\u201d should be enforced according to A. Lenthang, Kumpi of Kuki Inpis in a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister .
\n Both the Government of British India and the present Indian Government are aware of the above cited Act had been introduced for safeguarding all the Indigenous peoples in between the then India and Burma, the two countries India and Burma colonized by the Colonial Government then, but the region in question excluded resulting to this BEFR Act 1873.
\n Since then this \u201cInnerline Permit\u201d prohibits entry of –
\n1. India citizens (non-residents of the area in question)
\n 2. Foreigners (PAP)
\n3. Foreigners (RAP) and the practice has been being continued in the whole of north east India. Though the Act has mentioned specific areas; but in practice the entry of the above three categories are prohibited in the whole region beginning from Arakan Hills through Chittagong on to the whole region including Tripura and Manipur in between the two colonized India and Burma then.
\nThe Act has safeguarded the Indigenous peoples\u2019 ancestral land and the minority communities as well. They could live in peace and social harmony. The moment the \u201cInnerline Permit\u201d is removed or amended without the consent of the Indigenous peoples, inevitably, indigenous peoples will be in unspeakable hardship and their ancestral lands be grabbed by outsiders as it is now started in the state of Tripura, and the end of the chaos will be the extinction of all Indigenous peoples in the so-called \u201cIndependent Hill Country\u201d in between the Governments in India and Burma. <\/p>\n\n