Manipur Govt's move to check unlawful activities on highways

IMPHAL, March 17: The State Cabinet has decided to undertake a scheme on highway protection sooner or later to check activities of unlawful elements on the two national highways, the lifeline of a land-locked State like Manipur. The decision was taken in an emergency Cabinet meeting held at the office chamber of Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam. The meeting, while deliberating in detail about the burning of 15 oil tankers by underground activists on the National Highway-39 on March 8, also reviewed the ongoing law-and-order situation of the State after the announcement of the month-long unilateral ceasefire by the Government. Mention may be made here that Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam announced the unilateral ceasefire from March 1. However, no underground outfit has so far given any response to the ceasefire. The outfit PREPAK , on the otherhand, strongly reacted to the ceasefire announced by the Government, saying that the so-called ceasefire is meaningless. In the meantime, Chief Minister Koijam appealed to the ministers and MLAs concerned to allocate land for the construction of six outposts on National Highways-39 under the highway patrolling scheme. The State Cabinet also approved the State Budget for 2001-2002 to be introduced by the Chief Minister who also holds the Finance portfolio on the first day of the five-day Assembly session after discussing the Budget provisions in detail. The matter of sending a recommendation to the Centre by the State authority for implementing the provision of the Sixth Schedule in hill areas of the State was deferred to the next session by the Cabinet meeting. In another development, the Union government dropped the plan for shifting of 1st and 5th battalions of Manipur Rifles from the State to Jammu and Kashmir. A formal intimation had also been received by the state government in this regard recently, another informed source said here on Friday. At the same time, the policy of directly recruiting surrendered insurgents to the State forces in the Northeastern States would be stopped in the future, said a highly-placed official in the Ministry of Home Affairs to a group of journalists during a press conference held recently at New Delhi, sources added. The official also said that job preference should be given to the intending and worthy candidates and not to those who had waged a war against the Indian union. Quoting the official of the MHA, the source further revealed that the surrendered insurgents will not be considered for recruitment in the State forces. The insurgents who have laid down arms will be considered for recruitment if they pass the physical and written tests. It is also reliably learnt that the MHA will also start probing the possible nexus between the insurgents and bureaucrats as well ministers.