GUWAHATI: The tenth round of tripartite talks among Government of India, Manipur Government and the United Naga Council (UNC),Manipur, on the contentious issue over creation of seven new districts in the state during the previous Congress regime, failed to arrive at a solution on Saturday with Manipur government failing to coming up with a concrete proposal.
The tenth round of the on-going tripartite talks process was held at the DRDA Conference Hall, Senapati district headquarter in Manipur. Saturday’s round was chaired by Satyendra Garg, the Joint Secretary (NE), Ministry of Home Affairs, a source in Imphal informed.
The process of tripartite talks started after the previous Congress Government in Manipur formed seven new districts, some of which were carved out from some Naga dominated areas, in the state in 2016.
After the formation of the district, United Naga Council (UNC) the Naga people started protesting, calling bandh and blockades against creation of new districts.
Following unrest in the state for more than three months, the leaders of the UNC were arrested by the Manipur Police and sent behind the bars.
Later in 2017, the UNC leaders were released without condition and on the same year on March 19 the first round of tripartite talks started.
During Saturday’s talk, Manipur government submitted that it could not come up with a concrete proposal because of other urgent issues confronting the Government and requested for some more time to come out with a concrete proposal.
The representatives of Manipur government told UNC leaders that the government understood the sentiments of the organisation and that it would come out with a definite plan in the next meeting which is scheduled for the first week of December, 2018.
Manipur government was represented in the talks by its ministers V. Hangkhanlian, Thokchom Radheshyam, Losii Dikho. The UNC team was represented by its President, Gaidon Kamei, General Secretary S. Milan, All Naga Students` Association, Manipur, President Joseph Adhani and Naga Women`s Union President Asha Wungnam.
