Daily Times

GAUHATI: Tribal organisations opposed to legislations meant to protect the indigenous population and control influx of people from other states resorted to violence leaving at least three people dead in India’s northeastern Manipur state on Monday.
They also torched the houses of a minister and some legislators. Some tribal groups are incensed that the state government passed the bill in a hurry without consulting them. The Congress party-led government introduced three bills in the state legislature – the Protection of Manipur People Bill, 2015, The Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Seventh amendment) Bill, 2015, and The Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015, on Monday which was passed. This followed an agreement with the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS), which had demanded the ILP or a similar law in the state to protect the indigenous population and control influx of people from other states.
The Inner Line Permit (ILP) is a travel document that restricts the entry and stay of people from outside the state without permission. An indefinite curfew has been imposed in Churachandpur district from where the maximum violence was reported. Junior interior minister, Kiren Rijiju, said that the federal government was monitoring the situation. “We are monitoring the situation in Manipur. We have discussion with the officials of the Manipur state and the chief minister of Manipur and we have got some request for additional forces, which we are ready to send. In the, meantime since the situation is very tense and very difficult. So, the curfew has been imposed all around the troubled areas and if necessary we will take more steps,” said Rijiju in New Delhi on Tuesday.
ILP system was introduced by the British to protect their commercial interests, particularly in oil and tea, and continues in some northeastern states now essentially as a mechanism to firewall the tribal peoples and their cultures from onslaughts by outsiders. The JCILPS has been spearheading demand for the implementation of ILP to check the demographic imbalance within the state. The ILP is in place in other northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. Rioters went on a rampage in Manipur overnight, setting fire to the homes of seven lawmakers to protest new legislation defining who can claim to be from Manipur, police said Tuesday.