Imphal, Jan 30, 2025, IANS

Imphal, Jan 30 (IANS) A crucial tripartite meeting between the Centre, Manipur government, and the United Naga Council (UNC), over the Naga body’s demand for rollback of the "arbitrary creation" of seven new districts in the state, discussed the issue in detail on Thursday, officials said. A senior Manipur Home Department official said that after the threadbare discussion in the meeting, it was mutually agreed that a proposal would be presented by the representatives of the state government in the next round of tripartite meetings which would be held in April. In Thursday's meeting, held in Naga-dominated Senapati district, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) advisor, North East Affairs, A. K. Mishra, Manipur Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Singh and Home Commissioner N. Ashok Kumar, four Naga community leaders including UNC’s President N.G.Lorho and General Secretary Vareiyo Shatsang were present. The previous round of tripartite talks, held on November 29 last year, did not yield any result. Those controversial seven districts were created on December 8, 2016, by the then Congress government led by three-term Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh (2002-2017) amid opposition from the UNC, the apex body of Naga tribes in Manipur. The UNC has been strongly opposing the creation of the seven new districts, claiming that those districts encroached upon the ancestral territories of the Nagas. The Congress government had then asserted that the seven new districts were created aimed at administrative convenience and to better serve the people. The representatives of the Manipur government in the previous meetings expressed an inability to present a concrete proposal in view of certain difficulties. The UNC in October last year temporarily suspended its 48-hour shutdown after the MHA called for a tripartite meeting to discuss the issue. The UNC organised a series of agitations demanding the rollback of the “arbitrary creation” of seven new districts in December 2016 and the reinstatement of the status quo. It had, on September 11 last year, issued an ultimatum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah for redressal of the pending issue of “arbitrary creation” of seven new districts in Manipur in 2016 and warned of intense agitation if the matter was not resolved within 15 days. The Naga body claimed that the seven new districts were created “dishonouring” the four memoranda between the government of Manipur and the Naga people besides the assurance from the Centre in 2011. Naga people mostly inhabit six Manipur districts -- Tamenglong, Chandel, Ukhrul, Kamjong, Noney, and Senapati, which are along the Nagaland and Myanmar borders. During the 21-month-long ethnic unrest in Manipur between the non-tribal Meitei and the tribal Kuki-Zo community, the Naga-inhabited areas remained peaceful.