Naga bodies impose 'trade embargo' over border fencing issue, FMR

Imphal, Sep 10 (IANS) The indefinite “Trade Embargo” enforced in Manipur by the state’s apex Naga organisation, United Naga Council (UNC), continued for the second day on Wednesday affecting the supply of essentials and food grains to this Northeastern state from outside the state.

The UNC and other Naga organisations enforced the “Trade Embargo” in all Naga people inhabited areas in protest against the fencing along the India-Myanmar 1,643-km long international border and the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR).

Officials in Imphal said that hundreds of goods laden and empty trucks along with transport fuel carrying tankers stranded at different places of Imphal-Jiribam National Highway (NH-37) and Imphal-Dimapur National High (NH-2).

Maximum number of loaded trucks remained stranded at Mao Gate on NH-2.

The UNC and two other Naga organisations initiated the embargo by halting the movement of commercial goods along NH-2 and NH-37, particularly in Naga people inhabited areas.

The blockade has disrupted supply chains to several parts of the state, affecting both the Imphal Valley and southern Kuki-dominated hill districts.

The “Trade Embargo” has significantly impacted Senapati, Ukhrul, and Tamenglong districts, with trucks carrying essential goods remaining stuck at various checkpoints.

The UNC expressed disappointment over what it termed the Centre’s “lack of response” to their concerns, highlighting a failed meeting with the Ministry of Home Affairs on August 26.

According to the Naga organisations, the government’s decision to fence the border and repeal the FMR would physically divide Naga tribes across Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Myanmar, threatening their cultural identity, traditional and ancestral ties.

A UNC statement alleged that the indifferent attitude of the government necessitated a stringent agitation to register the rigid stance of the Naga people against the scrapping of FMR and the erection of fencing along the India-Myanmar border for defending the Naga homeland and identity, and the inherent rights over land, the statement said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (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 passport and visa, would be scrapped.

Instead, the MHA 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 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 put up fencing on the entire porous border, known for the smuggling of arms, ammunition, narcotics and various other contrabands, for Rs 31,000 crore.

--IANS

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