Agencies
IMPHAL, AUGUST 25
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he demand for the reintroduction of the Inner Line Permit system in Manipur took a new turn on Monday with several activists conducting house-to-house searches. They were checking the identification papers of migrant workers staying in rented rooms.
All these days the activists were handing over migrant workers without identification papers to police. However, from Monday the activists are asking such workers to leave Manipur.
Police sources said that there will be police intervention since many of such workers are genuine Indians. However, the activists point out that in the absence of valid identification papers the workers may be foreigners who had sneaked in through West Bengal and Tripura.Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has been saying that while the government will extend assistance in detecting the foreigners, police would not remain a silent spectator when genuine Indians are harassed.
Activists of Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System are joining hands with women vigilantes and members of local youths’ clubs in conducting the house-to-house searches.
In the recent past, some of the workers were found to be possessing fake voter cards. Many others did not have any identification papers.
The activists said that some government officials, village chieftains and panchayat representatives who had been issuing domicile certificates to a few outsiders, have been asked to stop such practices.
