Imphal, May 20: Hmar Students� Association (HSA) has conveyed the willingness of the Hmar armed group HPCD to start a peace dialogue with the Government of India so that peace could prevail and developmental works taken up in �Hmarland�.

This was disclosed by the president of the student body Joseph R Hmar during a press conference held at the Jupiter Yambem Centre here today.

Joseph informed that a memorandum to this effect was submitted to the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on April 28 last.

The copies of the memorandum were also presented to the mediapersons.

The memorandum, while insisting upon the Union Home Minister to solve the difficulties and heal the pains Hmar people are going through for ages, pointed out that HPCD has been showing their willingness to come to the negotiating table and start a dialogue so that peace prevails and development works taken up in �Hmarland�.

Giving the history of the tribe, the memorandum said Hmars were recognised as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) by Union Ministry of Home under Sixth Schedule of the Constitution in 1951.But they have been deprived of the rights and privileges guaranteed to the minority communities under the Constitution.

The Hmar people are spread out among the North Eastern States including Mizoram, Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura , the memorandum pointed out, adding that there is no common unifying umbrella of a single administrative unit, except being recognised as an indigenous tribe.

Highlighting upon the �critical Hmar issues�, the memorandum said in Mizoram, the Hmar areas are left out from socio-economic development activities by the Govt of Mizoram, apart from the fact that Hmar people have no scope for participation in the political arena.

The Mizoram Govt even goes to the extent of prohibiting any movement for promotion and protection of Hmar identity, putting it in its assimilation agenda, it alleged.

Commenting on Manipur, the memorandum said the State has always been the hot bed of Hmar movements.

Owing to the remoteness of the Hmar inhabited areas, development is still a distant dream.

Un-repaired road of National Highway 150 which passes through major Hmar villages for more than 20 years is a glaring sign of �international neglect�, the memorandum said.

The Government�s refusal to consult an important organisation such as HSA on the largest power project in the North East like the Tipaimukh Multi-Purpose Dam is of grave concern, the statement said, while noting that �HSA believes in the concept of free, prior and inform consent of the affected people on all projects�.

The memorandum further said that in Meghalaya, the Hmars are being treated as non-native tribe by some vested NGOs.

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