New levels of terrorism, corruption in Manipur

By: Anil Bhat

Manipur’s media has been bearing the brunt of both menacing threats from the many terrorist groups and pressure from the state government. While some reporters have been killed, quite often editors have been hounded and even abducted. So, reporting on the deterioration of security and law and order in Manipur right since 2004 has been quite hazardous. This daily is out of the few in New Delhi which has been regularly reporting on the situation in Manipur and the north-eastern states, interspersed by comment pieces now and then.

It is no wonder then that two disturbing and highly newsworthy developments in Manipur, which local correspondents and reporters may have been justifiably been hesitant to report on, came my way through two retired Army officers in Imphal, who write regularly for local dailies.

Major R.S. Jassal, who served in Assam Rifles, married a Tangkhul Naga lady and settled in Manipur, has written about how non-Manipuris are being intimidated by underground groups from both the valley and the hills. The diktats against “mayang”, meaning non-Manipuri, being implemented under fear of the terrorists’ guns since the past five months are:
(a) Non-Manipuris will not travel by bus from Guwahati or Dimapur to Imphal will not be issued a ticket. They are most welcome to travel out from Imphal.

(b) An ultimatum has been issued for all non-Manipuris to leave Manipur by 31 May, 2010.
(c) The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) group announced through newspapers to pay road taxes to a particular person by name, for travelling on NH-39 from Imphal to Guwahati. This is also applicable to non-Manipuris in the truck service business.

This is besides the killing of Hindi speaking persons in the recent past, the known tally of which has reached 32. The shock waves have been effective enough for some families settled for decades to leave. Those who haven’t, are exceedingly worried about their safety and dilemma-ridden whether to carry on with their trade/profession/vocation. Advisories by the police to this category of people not to venture out from municipality limits has further created panic for them. often in the past months, labourers and menial workers have been huddled at Imphal’s Dharamsala and Kalimandir. Okram Ibobi Singh’s government’s assurances are not at all being believed as it has often been reported how close some of its political leaders are to these groups.

Adding to the woes of the state, Naga insurgents, operating from Nagaland and the hill districts of Manipur, have been dominating the only two national highways, NH-39 and NH-53, imposing taxes on the use of the roads and threats of “punishment” for not paying them. There are 26 permanent and organised ‘tax’ collection points along these roads, which are Manipur’s vital links with Assam and the rest of India .

The silence from human rights groups, usually very vociferous about alleged atrocities by Army/Assam Rifles/imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur, has been deafening.

Lt. Col. L. Lokendra Singh is the one who has written about the Ibobi government’s latest swindle.

Loktak, the only fresh water lake in the Northeast, covering an area of 236.21 sq. km., is slowly being choked by the massive amount of municipal waste flowing into it coupled with the uncontrolled growth of a typical thick and stout floating biomass, locally called “phumdi”, that has been accumulating over the years. So much so that a terrorist group was able to set up a very well-concealed camp, which the Army eliminated last year.

Mr Ibobi’s government — late by a few decades — reportedly got Rs 374 crores sanctioned by the Centre under the Special Plan Assistance and “K Pro Infra Works Private Limited”, a Delhi-based company has been entrusted with the work of cleaning phumdis over a contractual period of two years and three months. The work involves scooping out of 132.94 lakh cubic metres of phumdis, cutting of 63.48 lakh square metres of the same for piling them up over 80 lakh square metres around the lake area. The total of Rs 374 crores over two years and three months works out to Rs 0.45 crore per day earning for K Pro.

Till early February 2010, a month after launching of K Pro’s project, no phumdis had been heaped up. Further search and queries confirmed that no work had been done and the only few truck loads of phumdis strewn were near Sendra hill, the area where the inaugural function was held and as Lokendra put it, “but it was too little to be worth Rs 13 crores (cost of one month’s work at Rs 0.45 crores per day) unless each kilogram was worth Rs 1 lakh”. Interestingly, local media reports recalled that the Planning Commission had sanctioned Rs 25 crores as Special Plan Assistance during 2008-09 for a project called “Conservation and Development of Loktak Lake and Associated Wetlands Integrating Manipur River Basin”, the main thrust of which was, removal of phumdis from Loktak lake. While there was no implementation of cleaning the lake then and again till February 2010, the latest reports are of “some cosmetic work on ground but a great amount on paper”.

K Pro’s office, flat No. A-104, plot No. 29, Sector 6, Dwarka, New Delhi — 110075, is reportedly locked and unused.
Other serious problems are some terrorist groups trying to extort money from schools and kidnapping children to add to their numbers, tensions between valley based Manipuris and some tribal groups. Unable to handle the situation, over 500 residents of Leirongthel Pitra, a village with 118 households, located about 45 km from Imphal, decided to leave in March 2010, requesting the state governments for protection from tribal militants.

Last year, both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union home minister P. Chidambaram had expressed their concern on the situation in Manipur to Mr Ibobi and home secretary G.K. Pillai, went there to prevail upon the state’s home department to “do more homework”.

Mr Pillai toured Manipur again in March this year to expedite efforts to bring the Kuki National Front (KNF) which signed an agreement for suspension of operations with the Union government in 2005, to the negotiating table. In January this year, following Mr Pillai’s visit to Burma , both countries agreed to launch a “coordinated operation” against Northeast separatist outfits taking shelter and setting up base camps there. It remains to be seen how sincere Burma is in its implementation.
Anil Bhat, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi.