The Union Home Ministry has instructed the Manipur government to provide necessary protection to the migrant workers who have been served quit notice.
On Saturday, Director-General of Police Yumnam Joykumar summoned the Superintendents of Police of the four valley districts to take stock of the situation. He asked them to identify and locate the migrant workers for providing them protection.
Nareshwor Kumar, president of the Hindustani Samaj of Manipur, submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohon Singh seeking protection to migrant workers in the light of the quit notice served by the proscribed Revolutionary People's Front.
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In a notice, the outfit said that the non-Manipuris who came and settled in Manipur after 1949 should leave the State by May 31.
However, those who had come for study and service could stay back. Some other rebel groups and the All-Manipur Students' Union extended support to the quit notice.
In the memorandum Mr. Kumar said that since January this year 32 non-Manipuris were gunned down by rebels. There were about 50,000 non-Manipuris eking out a living by running small grocery kiosks and doing casual works.
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In the past all the police did was to send the workers to relief camps. In most cases, social workers ran the camps since the government had looked the other way. After one or two days the migrant workers deserted the camps as the food supplied there could not be eaten.
The migrant workers had already left markets located at remote areas. Many families had left Manipur to seeking employment.