6 months ago
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The Kuki-Zo Council (KZC) connected Monday (December 1, 2025) expressed “strong objections” to what it called “renewed attempts” by the Manipur Government to operationalise a decades-old instrumentality that takes distant onshore ownership rights of tribal chiefs successful the Hill areas of Manipur.
The KZC, a conjugation of Kuki-Zo civilian nine organisations acceptable up successful the shadiness of the ongoing taste disturbance successful the State, cited a missive dated November 24 this twelvemonth from the Home Department of the Manipur Government.
As per this letter, the Home Department had asked authorities successful the Land Resources and Tribal Affairs and Hill areas departments to instrumentality up this contented astatine the “earliest”, based connected a practice from the Manipur Meetei Tribes Union (MMTU)
The practice from the MMTU called for the implementation of the Manipur Hill Areas (Acquisition of Chiefs’ Rights) Act, 1967. This instrumentality took distant the accepted onshore ownership of Scheduled Tribe chiefs successful the elevation areas of the State and stopped the hereditary transportation of onshore ownership from 1 main to the other. While the instrumentality received Presidential Assent successful the aforesaid year, it was ne'er operationalised.
The KZC said, “The precise conception that a non-tribal organisation is proposing cardinal changes to tribal onshore governance highlights heavy disregard for tribal rights.” The Council said that this was coming erstwhile Manipur was inactive successful a “state of struggle and displacement” and that specified a “destabilising” determination was “deliberate” and “risks further escalation”.
“We impulse the Hon’ble Governor of Manipur to intervene urgently and guarantee that this substance is not taken guardant nether contiguous circumstances,” the KZC said successful their statement.
Even aft the taste struggle began, erstwhile Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had successful 2024 said successful Parliament that his authorities would velocity up the implementation of the law, pursuing which BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh had besides called for the aforesaid connected societal media.
Furthermore, the KZC said, “We are arsenic acrophobic by the North Eastern Council’s announcement connected 27 November 2025 that 2.13 crores has been sanctioned for a Hill chiefs’ Guest House astatine Palace Compound, Imphal — a determination wherever Kuki-Zo chiefs and citizens cannot safely participate today.”
