Manipur: Meetei Youth Organisation demands halt on demolition drive in Churachandpur

The Meethi Youth Organisation has submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi seeking immediate intervention on the ongoing to stop the ongoing demolition of Meethi houses in Churachandpur.

Further, the organisation in the memorandum alleged that the government are using heavy machinery like JCB and explosives to obliterate every remaining structure and landmark in Meetei colonies of Churachandpur.

"The ongoing demolition, we feel, is an attempt to wipe out every traces and history of Meethi settlement in Churachandpur who happened to be minority Hindu and are economically, socially and politically backward," the memorandum added.

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The memorandum further added that the present conflict in Manipur was ignited when the Kukis-civilians and militants —started torching several Meetei houses at Torbung — Bangla areas in the aftermath of the so-called 'Tribal Solidarity March' on 314 May 2023, participated by many gun-wielding thugs brandishing their weapons.

The youth organisation alleged that violence was a meticulously pre-planned and coordinated strategy in Kuki-dominated areas of Manipur for the creation of Kukiland- a new state exclusively for the Kukis and its kindred tribes whose major chunk of the population are immigrants from Myanmar, This unfortunate conflict is neither between tribe's and non-tribals nor between Christians and Hindus but between militants — backed Kukis and Meetei, civilians.
 
This conflict between the Meetheis and Kukis is not at all related to the ST demand of the Meeteis but is the outcome of the Manipur Govt.'s stringent action on illegal immigrants, eviction of encroachers from Reserved Forests/Protected Paresis, war on drugs, destruction of large scale poppy plantations and the growing demand for implementation of NRC in Manipur. Certain policies of the present dispensation in carrying out its constitutional duties rubbed the raw nerves of the Kukis.