IMPHAL, Dec 7 NNN: Tribal leaders and intellectuals today deliberated on issues confronting the tribal people and the hill districts of Manipur.
\nA two-day seminar billed as the \u201cMega Tribal Seminar\u201d began today organised jointly All Maniput Tribal Union (AMTU), Committee on Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur (COPTAM), ATWO, ATCFM, TNAL and TLRCC at Tribal Research Institute (TRI), Imphal.
\nPresenting a paper, Prof Gangmumei Kamei said that Manipur is a multi ethnic state of which the tribal constitute 32 percent of the population\u201d.
\nAccording to Prof Gangmumei, at the time of granting statehood to Manipur in 1972, the Indian Parliament provided the Hill Area Committee (HAC) of the Manipur Legislative Assembly to provide legislative protection to the interest of the hill areas. He said a rapid appraisal of the working of the HAC during the last 40 years has unforunately shown that it has failed to act as an effective committee, to protect the interest of the hill people.
\n\u201cThe Fifth Schedule and the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India provide the mechanism for the administrative of the Scheduled Tribes and they refer to two areas. One is called the Scheduled Areas under the Fifth Schedule and the other is called the Tribal Areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and some selected areas of Mizoram under the Sixth Schedule. The tribal areas of Manipur are included in the Scheduled Areas but not covered by the Tribal Areas of the Sixth Schedule,\u201d pointed out Prof Gangmumei Kamei. He said, Article 371(C) of the Indian Constitution provides a special provision for the legislation and administration of the hill areas of Manipur in the form of the HAC. \u201cAccording to the Manipur Legislative Assembly (HAC) Order of 1972, the \u2018Hill Areas\u2019 mean the areas specified in the First Schedule of the Order,\u201d Gangmumei further pointed out.
\nHe also dwelt on \u2018evolution of administrative in tribal areas\u2019, \u2018the Constitution provision for legislation and administration in Hill Areas: Hill Standing Committee and Hill Areas Committee.\u2019
\nB.D Behring said, \u201cTribals in Manipur are not inferior to other tribals in India but we are still facing the difficulty due to ignorance of the meaning of our rights as envisaged in the Articles 15, 29, 30, 46, 275 and 371 (C) of the Constitution of India.\u201d B.D Behring also said the tribal people in Manipur are ignorant of Protection on Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act, 1989 and Reservation of Posts and Services for SC\/ST, Manipur Act, 1976 and National Scheduled Tribe Commission.
\nLamenting that since the last few years, many offices in the hill districts of Manipur have either stopped functioning or operated with a handful of staff, B.D Behring said the employees continue to receive their salaries even without attending duties. He also rued that elections to the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) were held in 2009 but the elected members failed to attend their chores in the hill districts. He asked the state government to see that those ADCs function in the hil districts instead of in the valley. The former RS MP then recalled the reason why he had decided to have a -fastunto-death protest. B.D Behring stated that he had met the Governor and the State chief minister and urged them to make the offices in the hill functional. Both the Governor and the chief minister assured to look into the matter but till date nothing concrete occurs.
\nLetpu Haokip, chairman of Committee on Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur (COPTAM) in his paper dwelt on issues like \u2018Land Record and District Boundary,\u2019 MLR and LR Act of 1960,\u2019 \u2018Village Authority and ADC Act of 2011,\u2019\u00a0 the border town Moreh rural and urban issue,\u2019 \u2018proposed Jiribam district,\u2019 Panchayati Raj\/Municipality,\u2019 Police Boundary,\u2019 \u2018Recognition of new villages\u2019.
\nLetpu Haokip demanded that for the transfering of hill land records from the adjoining valley districts to their respective hill district headquarters and to maintain the land records by respective ADC. He said these things are must to check \u2018interferences\u2019 in future. The COPTAM leader also demanded that the state government should ensure that the original district boundary is restored and maintained on the basis of the villages\u2019 land boundary recognised and recorded in the Manipur State Hill People\u2019s (Administration) Regulation of 1947.
\nFormer minister and president of All Manipur Tribal Union (AMTU) D.P.Panmei dwelt on reservation of posts and services for Scheduled Tribes.
\nHe gave reasons on why there are provisions in the Constitution of India to safeguard the Scheduled Tribes.
\nSomi Keishing while urging the state government not to go ahead of extending the MLR and LR Act of 1960 in the hill districts, has cautioned that such step of the state government is bound to create serious trouble in the state.<\/p>\n\n