Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, October 16 2009:
A "Chakka Bandh" has been called from 6 a.m.to 6 p.m.on October 19 in Manipur by the Indigenous Democratic Front (IDF) to press the government of Manipur to announce the date of Autonomous District Council elections forthwith.
This decision was unanimously resolved by district representatives of IDF at a meeting held on Friday in Imphal.
Speaking to Newmai News Network, the president of IDF Ngachomi Chamroy said that all the hill districts will resort to different forms of agitations indefinitely after the Chakka Bandh until the genuine democratic demand of the hill people is fulfilled.
"This is a democratic fight to the finish", the IDF president added.
For the past 20 years, the government of Manipur have been saying that elections to ADC is going to be held, the last announcement being April 18, 2008 as the election date announced by the chief minister of Manipur, O.Ibobi Singh, said Chamroy.
It is not surprising that the ADC election has not been held even now, stated the president of IDF, adding that the government cannot fool all the people all of the time.
Continuing his assail on the delaying tactics of the government for its vested interest in holding the ADC election, Ngachomi Chamroy charged that many gullible people have been convinced by the government and its agents that the ADC election will happen now automatically, which is a ploy to buy time to finish their unfinished agenda.
The alibi given a month earlier to the Centre Government by the government of Manipur for not announcing the date of the ADC election was the delimitation process being incomplete; now that the delimitation process is complete, what is stopping the government of Manipur from announcing the date of ADC election, questioned the president of IDF.
A memorandum has also been submitted to the chief minister of Manipur today to announce the date of ADC elections immediately, for which IDF will launch a peoples' movement starting with Chakka Bandh on October 19, 2009 .