Our Correspondent
Imphal, July 24 (EMN): Controversy over the location of a boundary pillar in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district along the India-Myanmar border has triggered opposition from several civil society organisations and political parties since last month after villagers of Kwatha Khunou, a border village located near the Border Pillar (BP) No. 81 alleged that the Indian government moved a border pillar about 3 km into Manipur.
The issue came to light after Deputy Commissioner A Tombikanta of Tengnoupal district led officials inspected the new BP No. 81 on June 22.
In view of the development district authority had even issued prohibitory orders every night (7pm to 4 am) 3 km around the India-Myanmar border for six months with effect from July 7.
To verify and oversee the situation, a three-member central team headed by Joint Secretary Sripriya Ranganathan of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) arrived here on a two-day visit to the state on Tuesday afternoon.
The other two members are Joint secretary AV Dharma Reddy of Ministry of Home Affairs (Border Management I) and Lt General Girish Kumar of Surveyor General of India.
Soon after their arrival, the team held a meeting with functionaries of United Committee Manipur (UCM), a civil society organisation for an hour prior to their trip to the reported dispute site.
After the meeting, General Secretary Kh Athouba of UCM said that they’ve urged the MEA officials to request Myanmar authority to review the past agreement and resurvey it together along with the people of Manipur.
Athouba also admitted that the ultimate demand of the committee is resurvey of the entire boundary pillars along the Manipur sector without that nothing is going to resolve the issue.
On Monday, Chief Minister N Biren Singh informed the state assembly that the state government had urged the Central authority for resurvey/re-demarcation as the people have apprehension regarding the alleged shifting of the position of the border pillar No.81. He also appealed to all political parties, other stakeholders and Kwatha villagers to give co-operation in solving the alleged disputed border pillar issue.
