Following the expression of support by some proscribed underground organisations of Manipur to the public announcement by the Revolutionary People's Front that all migrant workers who had come to the State after 1949 should leave by May 31, the All Manipur Students' Union (AMSU) has joined the chorus saying it is for the preservation of the distinctive character of the indigenous people.
The union reminded the people that it had been demanding the deportation of the foreigners since 1980. Two students had been killed during the agitations. The AMSU said it launched the ‘migrants leave' campaign on April 17, 2007 and added that the drive shall continue.
Ibobi : no eviction
In a delayed reaction to the orchestrated demand for the expulsion of the migrant workers, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, also in charge of Home, said that the government shall not remain a mute spectator if non-local workers were forcibly evicted from Manipur. The drive amounted to disintegration of the country, he said. Meanwhile some representatives of the migrant workers submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention.
