Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 01 2009:
Amid the growing civil movement against the Imphal "fake encounter", the opposition Manipur People's Party (MPP) is all set to kick off its proposed signature campaign to oust chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh soon.
Manipur police commandos gunned down Chungkham Sanjit Singh and Rabina Devi and injured five others in the alleged fake gunfight at the crowded Khwairamband Bazaar in the heart of the capital on July 23 .
The oldest regional party of the state has been launching different forms of agitations in a democratic manner across strife torn Manipur demanding ouster of Ibobi Singh and fitting punishment of the guilty commandos since the purported fake encounter photographs were published in the media about two months back.
"We have almost completed our internal arrangements to begin our massive signature campaign and this task will be mainly initiated by the youth wing of our party," said MPP president and former minister Nimaichand Luwang
on Thursday.
"After gathering signatures from the every individuals, we will submit the same to the central leaders including the President of India to show that the people of Manipur have given their written consent that they don't want Ibobi Singh to remain as chief minister for his total mis-governance," Luwang said.
MPP will continue to agitate until and unless Ibobi Singh is removed from his post and the guilty commandos are punished accordingly and currently the party is holding six to eight public meetings in a month in the valley areas.
"We are also planning to hold such meeting in the hills for which our members are all prepared," Luwang added.
Responding to a query, he said out of the four legislatures of the party, two of them are not active in the ongoing campaign against Ibobi Singh and the Congress led Secular Progressive Front (SPF) ministry.
"They (two MLAs) might have some tight schedules for their respective constituencies but this does not mean that we have differences among our party.
Nevertheless we have sent a letter to each of them on the matter," Luwang disclosed.
On the other hand the party is also all set to move the court if the state confirms detention of its leader Yumnam Khemchand Singh under the National Security Act (NSA).
Khemchand was pulled up by the police on September 4 after he shot some rounds in the air with his licensed gun reportedly in self defence the previous night at Singjamei area close to his Imphal residence.
On September 7, he was detained under the NSA.
"We are waiting for the results to be pronounced by the NSA board or the confirming authority concerning Khemchand's status.
If the board rejects the order that is fine and if not we will move the court to challenge the order," Luwang said.