Our Correspondent
Imphal, Sep. 23(EMN): Manipur Chief Minister N Biren said the state government has taken up stringent measures to prevent entry of illegal migrants across the border areas.
“The State government has already issued an alert to strengthen security along Indo-Myanmar border to prevent the influx of the Rohingya and other illegal migrants” says Biren while replying to a question during a media interaction at CM secretariat here on Friday evening. “The state police have been conducting massive drive to identify immigrants at Moreh by deploying additional officers since the past one month.”
Similar steps were also taken up at Behiang,a border village in Churachandpur district and Jiribam, another district headquarters bordering Assam’s Cachar district,he added. Manipur government has taken up the move to block the entry of Rohingya muslims fleeing from violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state along the more than 360 km porous Manipur sector of Indo-Myanmar .
Police have also intensified their drive by conducting door to door identification drives such as identification and verification of Aadhaar card and voter card of various households in the border areas.
So far 107 people have been deported for not having proper documents when the district authority screened 1211 houses in Jiribam area alone, he added.Steps are also on for the setting up of permanent police stations at Behiang and Jiri Mukh area along Manipur-Assam border. Replying to a query over the suspicious death of one Manipuri boy Pravish Chanam in Noida, Biren said state ADGP (Intelligence)Pramod Asthana has been deputed to get factual information from the UP government.
Biren also admitted that he had already talked with the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the telephone. He further stated that the State government would asked to conduct the investigation by an independent body such as CBI.
On the other hand with the primary objective to conserve the paddy land and wetland and to promote growth of agriculture sector in the State, Biren Singh informed that the government has decided to hold any process for conversion or reclamation of paddy land pending finalisation of the Data Bank with details of paddy land and wetland prepared with the help of digitised cadastral maps by the Government.
Biren mentioned that a Data Bank with details of paddy land along with the survey numbers will be prepared with the help of cadastral maps combined with satellite images of paddy land in a month’s time with the help of MARSAC to check such illegal conversions. Manipur Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2014 was implemented in the State with effect from September 10,2014.
Biren Singh said that violations if any detected on the basis of such digital maps will be detected and penalised as per provisions of the Act.
The government has also directed Deputy Commissioners of all districts to comply with the above decision strictly and ensure that no conversion or reclamation of paddy land and wetland is allowed until further instructions, he added.
