The All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU) has announced that apart from carrying on the “anti-foreigners’ campaign”, it will also create awareness on the possible swamping of the indigenous people. Accusing the Manipur government of inaction in checking the massive migration, it called for the immediate re-implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system in the state.
The AMSU president Naresh Thiyam , a former president Khelen M. and others were speaking in the 34th Awakening Day meeting, in memory of two students — Lukhoi Potsangbam and Loken Huidrom — who were gunned down by police on April 17, 1980 during the “anti-foreigners’ movement.”
The speakers underlined the imperative need to check the migration of non-locals. Though there is the Protected Areas Permit system in Manipur meant to regulate the flow of the foreigners, speakers said that a number of undocumented migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh settle down in Manipur.
They also said that the government has done nothing to implement the agreement signed with the AMSU in 1981 on the foreigners’ issues.
Prior to the merger of Manipur to the Indian union on October 15, 1949, there was the ILP system, albeit in another nomenclature, to safeguard the indigenous people. However, the government lifted it on November 18, 1950.
Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh said his government is all for the detection and deportation of the foreigners. Police have been arresting undocumented migrants every now and then.
