Imphal, April 19: Launching a scathing attack on the Government of India, the UCM today said that voting rights granted to the people of Manipur should not be taken as the ultimate goal of the people as the Centre has done nothing for Manipur ever since it merged with the Indian Union 54 years back.

In a hard hitting statement issued to the press today, UCM said that the Manipuri people today continue to reel under the atrocities perpetrated by the security personnel under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

So many retired underground cadres have been killed and eliminated and the modesty of a number of women have been outraged.

Even the territory of Manipur has been compromised by the Indian Government, said UCM and recalled that the Kabow valley was gifted to Myanmar without the knowledge of Manipur.

Again the territory of Manipur which was 22356 sq kms till the1980s is today only 22327 sq kms, claimed UCM.

Such a policy is in direct contradiction with the policy adopted in Kashmir, when India is ready to go to war to defend even an inch of Kashmir against the Pakistanis.

What has India done for Manipur, asked UCM.

The agenda of the Centre to tamper with the territory of Manipur became clear when it extended the NSCN (IM) cease fire to the soil of Manipur through the Bangkok Declaration on June 14, 2001, said UCM and recalled that it took 18 lives to be sacrificed during the Great Uprising to defeat the designs, of the Indian Government.

Statehood was won after numerous struggles and after a large number of activists were sent to the jail, recalled UCM and added that even the demand to include the Manipuri language in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution had to be won after a protracted struggle.

India has many laws to check infiltration but when students of Manipur protested against the large influx of outsiders into the State, the students were shot dead, said the statement.

The Inner Line Permit System has been withdrawn and Manipur is left open for all the outsiders to come and settle, added the Committee.

The demand of a greater autonomy for Manipur by UCM is gathering dust at the office of some political leaders of Delhi, said UCM and added that instead of looking into the genuine aspirations of the people, the Centre is ready to go ahead with the 6th Schedule which will do nothing but disintegrate the State.

Despite repeated assurances, Assam Rifles continue to occupy the holy place of the Manipuris, Kangla.

Just as the Golden Temple is sacred to the Sikhs and the Ram Temple at Ayodhya is dear to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, to the Manipuris too, Kangla is a sacred place.

However the Centre has not given it any attention and despite earmarking a plot to shift the Assam Rifles, nothing has been done so far.