Thursday, November 3, 2011

Learn to live together, PC tells Nagas - Chidambaram on two-day Manipur visit

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111103/jsp/frontpage/story_14702195.jsp

Learn to live together, PC tells Nagas
- Chidambaram on two-day Manipur visit
A resident of Senapati welcomes Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos

Senapati, Nov. 2: Union home minister P. Chidambaram today stopped short of asking the Nagas in Manipur to give up their demand for an alternative administrative arrangement.

"Manipur is a plural state, like any other state in the country. We must learn to live together, work together and accommodate each other," Chidambaram told a gathering at the newly inaugurated mini-secretariat building in Senapati district today.

Chidambaram is here on a two-day visit to inaugurate office buildings in the Naga-dominated districts of Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul.

The tour comes a day after the Sadar Hills District Demand Committee suspended its 92-day blockade yesterday. The blockade imposed by the United Naga Council against inclusion of Naga villages in the proposed Sadar Hills district, however, continues.

Nagas in Manipur have also been demanding an alternative administrative arrangement outside the purview of state government after the Okram Ibobi Singh administration prevented NSCN (I-M) leader Th. Muivah from entering the state in May last year.

Naga-dominated Senapati, in particular, had expected that the Union home minister would say something in favour of their demand.

But the home minister steered clear of any such comment.

Before Chidambaram addressed the people at the mini-secretariat, he held a meeting with leaders of the United Naga Council, the Naga People's Organisation, Senapati and the All Naga Students Association, Manipur.

Neither Chidambaram nor the Naga leaders said anything on what transpired during the half-an-hour meeting.

Ibobi Singh, who was rejected by the Nagas as a "communal chief minister", told the people in Senapati that his government would not do anything that would hurt the sentiments of any community in Manipur.

The chief minister had earlier said that his government would not inaugurate Sadar Hills district without the consent of the Nagas.

He also assured the Nagas that his government would work for the development of all communities in the state.

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