Emergency shutdown hits normal life in Manipur

Our Correspondent

Imphal, Aug. 3 (EMN): Following thearrest of some All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) leaders in Manipur, an emergency shutdown was imposed by various tribal students’ bodies spearheaded by ATSUM from Aug. 2 evening.

The emergency shutdown, which come into force from Tuesday evening, severely affected the vehicular movements along the two National Highways 2 and 37 apart from disturbing the movement of local transport between Imphal and district headquarters of Chandel, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, Noney, Senapati, Tamenglong, Tengnoupal and Ukhrul in particular.

The markets in Chandel, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, Senapati, Churachandpur, Tamenglong and Ukhrul district headquarters reportedly remained closed during the day, said the local residents when contacted.

The shut down also affected the functioning of educational institutions in both government and private in hill districts while attendances at government institutions were also reportedly poor.

Many vehicles, particularly the goods trucks and passenger carrying vehicles were stranded along various parts of the National Highway 2 (Imphal-Dimapur) due to the shutdown.

Earlier ATSUM had announced its series of agitations including a 24-hour total shutdown from 6 pm on August 3 in the entire hill districts to be followed by other intense agitations from August 5 to show its resentment against the indifferent attitude of the government towards tribal people and for not tabling the Hill Area Committee (HAC) recommended “The Manipur (Hill Areas) ADC Bill 2021” in the ongoing 2nd session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly. Whilst the assembly on August 2 introduced the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Councils (Sixth Amendment) Bill 2022 and the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Councils (Seventh Amendment) Bill 2022.

Drawing the attention of the assembly about the arrest of ATSUM leaders on Wednesday, Naga People’s Front MLA Ram Muivah representing Ukhrul assembly constituency suggested inviting the ATSUM leaders and hold talks to apprise them of the steps taken up by the state government and bring a consensus solution.

There were no reports on the release of the arrested ATSUM leaders till the filing of this report.