IMPHAL, SEPTEMBER 10: Senior Congress leader and sitting MLA Yumkham Erabot on Saturday announced that he will resign from the All India Congress Committee.
Elected six times as MLA of which four times on Congress since 1984, Erabot who also had held different ministerial portfolios including Food and Civil Supplies, Education and Public Health Engineering Department, told reporters here that he took the decision following a request from his Wangkhei constituency supporters. “Now I will take future course of action after consulting my supporters,” former minister added. However, there is no report of submitting his resignation to MPCC till the report goes to the press, according to Congress sources.
Reports available here claimed that Irabot’s supporters are pressuring him to join the Bharatiya Janata Party and fight the upcoming assembly election in Manipur which is expected to be held in early part of next year. Political observers said that Irabot might have taken the decision to tender resignation from congress party due to lack of cooperation from the congress leadership particularly from the ruling leaders.
It may be noted that a team of Election Commission of India is also scheduled date of visit Manipur for two days beginning September 21 to oversee the state’s preparedness for the upcoming 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly election.
Meanwhile, steps are afoot to prevent swine fever in Manipur. Precautionary measures are on to prevent the trans-boundary animal disease at Moreh, a commercial border town. The step has been taken following the detection of classical swine fever among pigs. Principal disease investigator Dr Ng Ibotombi of Manipur state veterinary and animal husbandry department told this reporter that the matter will be intimated to the concerned authorities to monitor the ‘illegal import’ of livestock from across the border besides giving awareness to the farmers. Reacting to report on outbreak of classical swine flu, Dr Ibotombi clarified that the department officials detected classical swine fever (not swine flu as reported) among the pigs at Moreh. Around 20 pigs were reportedly died in and around Moreh town due to swine fever in the last four days. The state veterinary team also conducted a ring vaccination around the affected area in Moreh to prevent further spread and advised the farmers to prevent illegal import of livestock from across the border and disposed off the death carcass properly. Despite the restriction on import of livestock from across the border, there are reports of importing pigs and cattle illegally as pork and beef is widely consumed in Manipur.
