Imphal, June 11: The United Committee Manipur (UCM) has said that since 2002 onwards, June18 had been a Manipur holiday but it was only this that the State government has officially declared it as a state holiday, reports NNN.

The UCM general secretary said that it was actually demanding from the Government to declare June18 as �Great June Uprising Day� but the Government had declared it as �(Manipur) Integrity Day� and declared it as a State holiday.

Talking to Newmai News Network today UCM general secretary Kh Gourashyam said that whatever may be the case UCM will observed June 18 with the civil societies.

Gourashyam said that civil societies irrespective of any ethnic group will participate in the observation on the day and various communities had been included in the June 18 Observation Committee.

On the other hand, the United Naga Council (UNC) has dismissed the report as false which appeared in The Sangai Express on the June 11 edition under the caption �UNC against June-18�.Informing this to Newmai News Network today, UNC president Puni Modoli said that the report was baseless and the source from which the news obtained was not from the United Naga Council.

Puni Modoli said that the UNC leaders had an informal and casual discussion to appeal to the Government to review its decision of declaring June 18 as a State holiday.

Puni Modoli said that the UNC was discussing informally to appeal to the Government to declare June 18 as a restricted holiday and not as a State holiday.

The UNC president reasoned that about 21 ethnic groups are living in Manipur so the Government should consider the case of all these groups before doing anything.