Correspondent
IMPHAL, June 17
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he United Naga Council (UNC)Manipur sponsored 48-hour general strike which was started from last midnight has disrupted normal life in Naga dominated four hill districts of Manipur - Chandel, Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul.
However, the strike did not affect the remaining five districts - Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Thoubal and Churachandpur districts, reports said.
Demanding an alternative arrangement by forming a separate administrative unit for Nagas in Manipur, UNC Manipur called the general strike which is scheduled to end tomorrow midnight (June 18).
With the imposition of the strike, vehicular movement of essential items-laden trucks from outside the state along the National Highway 2 (Imphal-Dimapur-Gwahati) and National Highway 37 (Imphal-Jiribam-Silchar) which passed through the Naga dominated Senapati and Tamenglong districts have been severely affected.Sources said vehicular movement was totally disturbed on the first day of the general strike in all the Naga inhabited hill districts of Manipur namely Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong and Chandel.The inter-district transport services between the above the district headquarters and the state capital(Imphal)were also suspended for the day. However, there was no sign of general strike in Churachandpur and four valley districts-Imphal west,Imphal East, Bishnupur and Thoubal districts.
Reports from Mao, Tadubi, Maram and Senapati ,all under Senapati district(headquater),60 km north of Imphal, said the strike peaceful but total shutdown of business establishments. Police said many goods laden vehicles were stranded at Mao-gate bordering Nagaland and travellers attempted to walk till their respective destination.
With educational institutions exempted from the purview of the strike, some school children were seen in the streets while young boys spent their day by playing football in the street as a world cup football fever.
Unlike Senapati, Tamenglong and Chandel, general strike enforcing volunteers were absent in the Ukhrul town,84km north of Imphal during the day, a resident in Ukhrul hill town said. Strike was also total as all shops and offices in the Tamenglong town, 150 km west of Imphal, remained closed since dawn. However, no untoward incidents were reported till the time of filing this report.
It may be noted that representatives of UNC Manipur, central and state governments had earlier held tripartite talks on the demand of the UNC but no solution could be arrived so far.
