Gadkari urges PM Manmohan Singh to solve Manipur highway blockade

IMPHAL: BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging the latter to intervene into the Sadar Hills district demand agitation and do the needful for creation of the district. Gadkari sent the letter a few minutes after a delegation of the self-explanatory Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee (SHDDC), including its general secretary Tonghen Kipgen and leaders of the saffron party, convened a meeting with him at his New Delhi residence in the afternoon. Manipur unit BJP secretary (media affairs) L Bashanta Sharma, who also attended the meeting, said the party, which supports the SHDDC agitation, would also highlight the matter in Parliament. In pursuit of its demand to convert Sadar Hills in Senapati into a full-fledged revenue district, the SHDDC has been imposing economic blockades on National Highways 39 and 53 since August 1. The committee has also called an indefinite general strike in Sadar Hills, which is predominately inhabited by the Kukis. On the other hand, the United Naga Council (UNC) has also imposed an indefinite bandh on all highways, including NH-150, in Naga areas since Sunday morning in protest against what it termed as the state government's attempt to bifurcate Naga areas to create new districts. On Tuesday night, suspected UNC supporters torched a rice-laden truck in Senapati along NH-39, the key supply route of the state. The strikes have already triggered a commodity crisis in the state hitting the commoners hard. In his letter sent to PM , the BJP supremo said, "You may be aware that a legislation - Manipur (Hills area) Autonomous District Council act 1971 - was passed by Parliament for creation of six autonomous district councils." He added, " I feel that your good office will intervene in the matter and forward this issue to the state of Manipur for immediate implementation of the Manipur (Hills area) Autonomous District Council Act 1971." Besides Basanta , other BJP leaders who met Gadkari included Tapir Gao, Avinash Koli, general secretary (organization ) and national executive member P Somojit Singh.