Ahead of Union Interior Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Manipur on December 27, the Zomi ethnic group of the state renewed its demand for a self-administered zone modeled on the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC ) in Assam.
The Zomi Council, representing nine Zomi tribes, said it relies on the decisive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Shah and Chief Minister of Manipur Nongthombam Biren Singh for the establishment of the Zoland Territorial Council (ZTC) under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. .
According to Zomi Board Chairman John K. Ngahite, ZTC should be modeled after BTC.
“With Mr. Shah’s planned visit to Manipur, we hope that an honorable political solution will be accelerated for the related Zo tribes and that the political dialogue with the Zomi political groups for the establishment of the ZTC will resume, as desired by the majority tribes. represented by the SoO, ”he said in a joint statement with Zomi Council Secretary General Nangzakai Suante.
SoO is the abbreviation for the tripartite suspension of operations between the Center, the Manipur government and 25 extremist groups belonging to the Kuki-Zomi groups. While 17 of these groups formed the National Kuki Organization (KNO), eight united under the name of the United Popular Front (UPF).
The SoO deal was first signed by the Zomi Underground Revolutionary Army (ZRA) in 2005. The other groups joined the group later.
The KNO and the UPF had called for the creation of an autonomous mountain state in Manipur when the former Union Minister of the Interior, P. Chidambaram, visited the designated ZRA camp in December. 2010. The demand evolved into that of a BTC-like territorial council when former Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Manipur in March 2017.
