Guwahati
Governor Anusuiya Uikey has summoned the monsoon session of the Manipur Assembly on August 29, a day after the state Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister N Biren Singh recommended convening the session on that day.
“The Governor hereby summons the 4th session of 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly to meet at 11 am, on Tuesday, the 29th August,” the notification said.
The Biren Singh Cabinet had earlier recommended the Governor to convene the Assembly session from August 21, but the House did not sit on Monday as no notification was issued by the Raj Bhavan.
As many as 10 Kuki MLAs, cutting across party affiliations, had expressed their inability to attend the Assembly session as violence in the northeastern State continued. But a majority of MLAs, mostly Meiteis, wanted the House to be convened.
The last assembly session was adjourned sine die in March. It is a constitutional obligation that the next session must be held before September 2.
Meanwhile, the Centre has decided to augment the security in Manipur after the culmination of the ongoing Amarnath Yatra. It plans to deploy about 20-22 fresh CAPF companies in the violence-hit regions of Manipur after the withdrawal of these personnel deputed for the security of the Amarnath Yatra that is ending on August 31.
These companies will be in addition to the about 125 such units of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) that are already deployed in Manipur since violence broke out in the first week of May.
About 20-22 companies of the CAPFs — that includes the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) — will be deployed in Manipur in the first phase as part of bolstering the security grid in the troubled State.
In the meantime, blockades by the apex tribal group Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU) on the National Highway-37, connecting Manipur’s Imphal with Silchar of Assam, were more or less cleared, as the movement of 171 trucks with essential commodities was ensured. But the roadblocks on National Highway-2, which links Imphal with Nagaland’s Dimapur, by the tribal outfit continued.
COTU had on Monday reimposed blockades at a few places on NH 2 in Kangpokpi and NH 37 in Tamenglong district, demanding adequate supplies of essential commodities to Kuki-Zo communities in hill areas of Manipur, where the casualties have exceeded 160 ever since the ethnic classed first started.
As things stand, the 3-member Justice Geeta Mittal committee, set up to oversee relief and rehabilitation of the victims of ethnic violence in Manipur, has on Monday submitted its reports in the Supreme Court which said it will pass certain procedural directions on August 25 to facilitate the committee’s functioning,
