IMPHAL: Normal life in Manipur was crippled on Wednesday due to a day-long shutdown called by an insurgent group opposing the proposed shifting of a hospital to Keirao from Sagolmang in Impahl East district.
All educational institutions, business centres and public facilities were shut while buses and trucks went off the roads. Attendance in government offices was thin.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said that though the site for the hospital was picked as Sagolmang, the government decided to shift it to Keirao due to a land dispute.
But activists opposed to the government decision claimed there was no land dispute.
Said a spokesperson for a group spearheading the agitation, H. Dijen: “People shall continue the agitation till the hospital is relocated at Sagolmang.”
Thousands of women and youths in Khundrakpam assembled on Tuesday night carrying torchlight and took out a 12 km-long procession. IANS