Security measures have been beefed up at unprecedented scale in Manipur ahead of the two day official visit by the union Home Minister Amit Shah beginning on Thursday night. However there is no intelligence input to show that some insurgents may be planning to create law and order problems during Mr. Shah’s visit. The outlawed armed groups however call a lockdown and public curfew during the visits of the Prime Minister.
Mr. Shah is scheduled to welcome the tribal farmers who had “given up poppy cultivation” and had started alternative lawful cultivation. The Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren had fumed as some tribal farmers continued the lucrative poppy cultivation despite their public pledge. When police started arresting the tribal chieftains many villagers destroyed the poppy plants. The government had given monetary assistances to those farmers who wanted to stop poppy cultivation.
Mr. Shah is scheduled to inaugurate several developmental projects including the building of the newly opened medical college in Churachandpur district. He will also hoist the Indian flag at the INA complex at Moirang in Bishnupur district. It is the place where the INA soldiers hoisted the flag of Indepenedent India. He will also lay foundation stones for several projects.
Mr. Shah will also unveil the statue of a polo player at the pony sanctuary at Heingang near Imphal. Mr. Biren says that it will remind the tourists from home and abroad that Manipur had gifted the polo game to the world.
Mr. Shah is scheduled to leave Imphal on Friday afternoon.
