Kuki's apex body slams alleged "unfair constitution" of a committee to re-organize police jurisdiction in Manipur, appeals to Guv to review, reconstitute committee

The apex body of the Kuki tribes, the Kuki Inpi Manipur strongly denounced the alleged unfair constitution of a committee to re-organize the police jurisdiction in the strife-torn Manipur state and apprised the Governor of Manipur to review and reconstituted the committee.

The Governor of Manipur on December 31, 2023, issued an order wherein a four-member committee was constituted to reorganize the police jurisdiction in the state with IPS K. Jayanta Singh as head of the Committee.

The Kuki's apex body KIM stated that the constitution of the committee for re-organisation of Police Jurisdiction is a pressing need for the safety and security of the people and their land, especially of the Kuki-Zo people.

KIM however, stated that the constitution of the committee, totally devoid of any Kuki-Zo representation, is beyond excusable; especially considering the fact that most of the areas having such jurisdictional contestations belong to the Kuki-Zo community.

"Such actions only testify to the malignant nature of the Manipur State Government against the Kuki-Zo people", it stated.

It also pointed out that the constitution of the committee obviously exhibited the Manipur Government's continuance of anti-tribal policies, as a tribal officer IK Muivah (IPS, RR. 2000 batch) is appointed only as a member of the said committee despite the fact that he is senior to K Jayanta Singh (IPS, SPS: 2002 batch), who, it appears, is being made the Chairman of the committee by virtue of being a Meitei.

It further stated that the direction to submit the recommendation of the committee to the Home Department, Government of Manipur which is headed by the alleged "infamous" Chief Minister N. Biren Singh is similarly discriminatory and aggravating while alleging that, for the record, N. Biren Singh and his closest aides are known to have deliberately engineered the ongoing ethnic-cleansing against the Kuki-Zo people by building a militia of youths, assisted by the Meitei State forces, arming them with the state's arms and ammunitions, proactively shielding them and constantly engaging them to terrorize the Kuki-Zo people.

"It is therefore totally justified for the Kuki-Zo people to have zero faith in the Chief Minister or for that matter, the Meitei State Government", it added.

KIM also stated that there has been a long history of the exploitation of such ambiguous Police jurisdictions, by the Meitei Dominated Valley districts, to suppress and subjugate the Kuki-Zo people, and this will not be tolerated any further.

Therefore, the committee must tread carefully to ensure that no part of the land (village/town/ area) belonging to the Hill districts, and the Kuki-Zo areas in particular, should fall in the jurisdiction of the Valley Districts, whether Revenue or Police, it cautioned.

The Kuki Inpi Manipur appealed to the Governor to review such pressing issues and to reconstitute a committee which is fairly represented in the interest of justice, fairness, and equality and to re-organize the Police jurisdiction in line with the demands of the Kuki Inpi Manipur to prevent further misuse of power and authority of the Meitei State Government against the Kuki-Zo people.