Manipur parties pledge war on AIDS

IMPHAL, Jan 24 — Most of the political parties in the State have pledged to fight the dreaded disease — AIDS as part of its poll plank. Political parties like the Congress Party, Samata Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Nationalist Congress Party and the Federal Party of Manipur have expressed their interest to bring out a comprehensive policy on AIDS. Former Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam while expressing his view during the two-day workshop on “Sensitisation of political leaders and parties to HIV/AIDS issues,” urged the people’s representatives to extend cooperation for resolving the problem of HIV/AIDS. As leader of the State unit of Samata Party, former Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam also informed the gathering that his party had already taken a decision during its political conference held on June 13 last year that the Samata Party is ready to fight the dreaded disease. It may be noted here that the veteran political figure in Manipur and former Chief Minister Rishang Keishing had told the media persons that his party is trying to include the issue of AIDS in the manifesto of the Congress Party for the ensuing Assembly election. The two-day AIDS workshop for the political parties was organised by the All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU) at its newly constructed Manipur Press Club premises. The workshop started from Saturday. On the concluding session on Saturday former Deputy Chief Minister and President of the Federal Party of Manipur, Dr Leishangthem Chandramani, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Chief Minister RK Dorendro, Lok Sabha MP and leader of the State unit of Nationalist Congress Party Holkhomang Haokip also spoke on the occasion.

Most of them also assured the gathering that each party is trying to include the AIDS issue in their election manifestos which are to be released shortly for the forthcoming State Assembly election. The two-day workshop which was organised under the sponsorship of Manipur State AIDS Control Society (MACS) was attended by hundreds of mediapersons as well as leaders of various political parties. The project director of MACS, Dr Khomdon Lisam while giving his address to gathering on the first day of the workshop, expressed concern that infection in pregnant women has risen from 1.3 per cent in 1993 to 3.3 per cent in 1999. He disclosed that several number of unmarried girls in Manipur may also be infected due to pre-marital sex. Dr Khomdon, however, asserted that the silver lining in the situation is decline in infection among intravenous drug users (IDUs) from 76.9 per cent in 1996 to 55.48 per cent in 2000. Till December 1998, the total number of HIV positive cases in Manipur was recorded at 38,729 with females comprising 12,812 cases.