New Delhi/Imphal, Aug 26 Officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and leaders of three Naga groups in Manipur held a meeting over the demand for reinstatement of the old Free Movement Regime (FMR) and stoppage of the ongoing fencing along the India-Myanmar border.
The MHA official team was led by A. K. Mishra, advisor to the MHA on Northeast Affairs, while the 11-member Naga delegation was headed by United Naga Council (UNC) President Ng. Lorho and comprised representatives of the UNC, the All Naga Students' Association, Manipur (ANSAM), and the Naga Women's Union (NWU).
A spokesman of the UNC said that Tuesday’s New Delhi meeting was "inconclusive".
"After returning to Imphal on Wednesday, we would discuss the outcome of the meeting with the MHA and decide the next course of action," he said.
The UNC had previously issued an ultimatum to the Central government and held a meeting with Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla on August 16 to discuss the reinstatement of the old FMR and stoppage of border fencing along 398 km India-Myanmar border with Manipur.
The UNC and other Naga bodies have been agitating in support of their demands since last year, opposing the "unilateral abrogation of FMR and construction of border fencing along the India-Myanmar border".
Tuesday’s meeting with MHA officials in New Delhi and the UNC-Governor meeting on August 16 in Imphal came against the backdrop of the expiry of the 20-day ultimatum served by the UNC to both the Centre and the state government regarding what it described as the "unilateral abrogation" of the FMR and the ongoing border fencing works.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, in his Independence Day speech in Kohima, expressed his concern over the Centre’s decision to trim down the FMR along the India-Myanmar border from the earlier 16 km to 10 km and limit movement to nine crossing points.
He had urged the Union government to be flexible and review the sensitive issue.
The MHA last year announced that the FMR, which earlier allowed people residing along the India-Myanmar border to travel 16 km into each other’s territory without a visa, would be scrapped soon. Instead, it had decided to adopt a new scheme to issue a pass to the border residents of both India and Myanmar living within 10 km on either side of the frontier to regulate cross-border movements.
The Nagaland Assembly earlier unanimously decided that an all-party delegation would meet the Union Home Minister to explain to him the "sentiment and resentment of the Naga people" against the MHA’s decision to cancel the FMR between India and Myanmar.
Participating in the discussion on the issue, the Chief Minister had told the house that the border movement restriction would affect the long-standing historical, ethnic, social, cultural, traditional and economic ties of Nagas living on both sides of the India-Myanmar border.
The Nagaland and Mizoram governments and a large number of political parties and civil societies in the two northeastern states have been opposing both border fencing and the scrapping of the old FMR.
Four northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram -- share a 1,643-km unfenced border with Myanmar. The MHA had earlier decided to erect fencing on the entire porous border, known for the smuggling of arms, ammunition, narcotics and various other contrabands, at a cost of Rs 31,000 crore.
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