Koijam denied Central aid

NEW DELHI, March 6: The Manipur Chief Minister, Radhabinod Koijam, today had to leave Delhi empty-handed. He announced yesterday that the finance minister had agreed to clear Rs 100 crore out of the Rs 200-crore special aid to the state and hence state government employees would receive their salary, pending for three months. The finance ministry held back the money at the eleventh hour, following the home ministry's intervention, sources said. The latter insisted that the money should be cleared only after the state honoured the MoU with it on retrenching around 2000 employees for their alleged links with the extremist outfits. It could be a coincidence. However, the home ministry's reported blocking of the Central aid came hours after Radhabinod Koijam expressed his reservations about the North Block extending the ceasefire to the NSCN(IM) alone. In fact, Koijam was informed about the finance ministry's change of mind yesterday after he announced the clearance of Rs 100 crore, following his talks with Yashwant Sinha in the afternoon and conveyed the "good news" to people of his state. Koijam's failure to deliver the promised salary during the festive season could have serious implications for his new government. He pointed out to the finance ministry and the home ministry that the MoU was, in fact, signed by the previous Nipamacha Singh government and he shouldn't be pressured to honour it "on the spot". The Chief Minister argued in vain that such a "sensitive" MoU should be honoured in a "systematic manner". Koijam left for Imphal this morning without an Id gift for his people and only a fading hope that "a last-minute change of mind in Delhi"might prevent a "colourless Holi" for state government employees. Koijam's loss of face has made many Samata Party leaders uneasy, adding to the tension in the Samata-BJP relations that started with the "friendly-tussle" during the run-up to the formation of the Koijam ministry. During his earlier visit to Delhi, Koijam had projected the Rs 200-crore aid from the finance ministry as a major "achievement". Many feel the "BJP leaders were deliberately denying salary to the minority people in Manipur during Id". They also regarded the denial of aid as "yet another example of New Delhi's continued discrimination against the Northeast".