Demand for white paper on Naga Agreement, bandh launched

Imphal, March 25 (PTI): Demanding a white paper on the Naga Framework Agreement, Manipur Muslim Welfare Association has launched a 24-hour bandh starting 6 pm today in the state.
Association president Abdullah Pathan demanded that the BJP-led government should produce the white paper on the agreement signed between NSCN (IM) and the Centre within 24 hours.
The bandh follows NSCN (IM) general secretary Th Muivah’s reported remark at Camp Hebron in Nagaland recently that the Framework Agreement, which was signed two years ago, recognized the demand to integrate all Naga inhabited areas in the region.Pathan also urged the state government to make public any hidden agenda behind the induction of a Naga Peoples Front (NPF) MLA in the new council of ministers and criticized NPF for its reluctance to identify itself as Manipuris.
The new BJP-led coalition government in Manipur has the support of 4 NPF MLAs and one of them has been given a cabinet rank.
The Centre has today strongly refuted as “erroneous” the reports that it has agreed to carve out a larger Nagaland state.
Yet another general strike beginning from midnight tonight has been called by Democratic Students Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) to protest against the induction of Independent MLA Ashab Uddin as a parliamentary secretary.
He said Ashab Uddin was a “non-indigenous person” and strongly protested against the allocation of education and other departments to him. The bandh would continue for 17 hours, DESAM President Nameirakpam Edison Singh said adding a stronger form of agitation would be taken up after the ongoing board examinations if the N Biren Singh government failed to comply with the demand for removal of portfolios from Ashab Uddin.
DESAM, Singh said, had boycotted Ashab Uddin before he was inducted as parliamentary secretary following which he had claimed that his family had come to Manipur in 1906.
All Manipur Bengali Students Association, Jiribam and All Manipur Muslim Organisation Co-ordinating Committee have urged DESAM to withdraw the boycott imposed against MLA Ashab Uddin.