GUWAHATI: The Manipur government has appealed to the United Naga Council (UNC), which called for a 48-hour shutdown in the state’s Naga-inhabited areas from the midnight of October 3 in protest against the alleged arbitrary creation of seven districts in 2016, not to go ahead with the proposed agitation.In a letter to the UNC which is Manipur’s apex Naga organisation, the Manipur government said the Centre had agreed to resume the tripartite talks with the UNC and nominated AK Mishra, advisor (Northeast) to represent the Ministry of Home Affairs.“The date, time and place for the talks will be intimated at the earliest. Therefore, I am to request you to withdraw the proposed agitations and extend cooperation to the steps initiated by the Central and state governments to avoid any kind of unwanted event,” Manipur government Commissioner-cum-Secretary (Home) N Ashok Kumar wrote in the letter to the UNC.In a statement on Monday, the UNC stated that it had issued an ultimatum earlier demanding that the decision to create the seven districts by the then Congress government be rolled back ‘in the spirit of’ four MoUs signed between Manipur government and the Nagas.The tribal organisation recalled that during the last round of tripartite talks held on March 9, 2019, an assurance was given that the state government would place a concrete proposal in the next round of talks, which was to have been held by the last week of July that year.
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