Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 27 2010:
A team of Local Support Group PAP, Manipur (LOSGROM) would be leaving for New Delhi tomorrow to urge Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh lift the Protected Area Permit (PAP) system from Manipur.
Speaking to media persons at Manipur Press Club here today, LOSGROM convenor RK Shivachandra said that they would call on the Prime Minister and the Home Minister and urge them to lift PAP system from Manipur.
He said that their trip to New Delhi is a part of the anti-PAP campaign initiated since December 5 by the Manipuri Association for Canada.
Shivachandra who is also president of IndoMyanmar Fraternal Alliance said that more than 1000 people belonging to 75 different countries have sent their comments against the PAP system to www.gopetition.com till December 22 .
Notably, Tourism Minister TN Haokip and IFC Minister N Biren are signatories of the campaign.
Observing that PAP system has been the most formidable barrier to the growth of tourism industry in Manipur, Shivachandra said this system has been denying Manipuri diasporas to visit their ancestral homes in addition to disallowing Manipuri citizens to bring home their wives, in case their wives happen to be foreign nationals.
Confiding that they may be able to call on the Prime Minister on December 29 or 30, Shivachandra said that their team and another team of Manipuri diasporas from Canada have been making correspondence with MP Dr T Meinya.
Of the five-member team of LOSGROM leaving for New Delhi tomorrow, four are journalists.
The team is also taking help from the social networking site www.facebook.com, said LOSGROM member Neerun Thongbam.