CM Biren Singh lauds Centre's move to fence Indo-Myanmar border, suspend FMR

Chief Minister N. Biren Singh expressed thankfulness to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other central leaders for listening to the voice of the people of Manipur and for the decision to construct fencing along the entire 1,643-kilometer Indo-Myanmar border and immediate suspension of the Free Movement Regime.

The Chief Minister was briefing the media this evening at the Chief Minister's Secretariat.

Continuing that the State Government has been giving priority to keeping its people and the State's boundary safe and secure, he maintained that the Government, since its formation in 2017, had been working in different ways to check the demographic balance in population growth, drugs trafficking and other concerns like border fencing and unchecked Free Movement Regime among others.

Informing that a 1 Km stretch of fencing through a Hybrid Surveillance System (HSS) is under execution in Manipur, bordering Myanmar, he continued that fence works covering 20 km in vulnerable areas have also been approved, and the work will start soon.

Regarding the Free Movement Regime, he reiterated the Home Ministry's decision for immediate suspension, to ensure the internal security of the country and to maintain the demographic structure of India’s North Eastern States bordering Myanmar.

He also lauded the move of the Central Government to constitute a high-powered committee for considering the challenges arising from “fast population growth and demographic changes". He further appreciated Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for announcing it in her interim budget speech, acknowledging what the people wanted.

Biren further stated that all the positive steps taken up by the Central and the State Governments are for the betterment of future generations.

On the Government's War on Drugs Campaign, the Chief Minister informed that the Government has not stopped its work of destroying poppy plantations, since the start of the campaign and added that areas of poppy plantations had decreased a lot. Identification of areas with poppy cultivation had been done through satellite mapping, he said, adding that combined teams of Narcotics and Affairs of Border, Narcotics Control Bureau, State forces and Forest Department would destroy the poppy plantations by the end of this month.

The Speaker, Manipur Legislative Assembly, Ministers, and Members of the Legislative Assembly also attended the press briefing.