Imphal, May 27 (IANS) Congress, which has been demanding fresh assembly elections in Manipur, on Tuesday said that the double-engine government and the President’s Rule have failed for more than two years in the state.

Manipur state Congress President Keisham Meghachandra Singh said that double engine governments (Centre and state) had utterly failed in the state for the last more than two years after the ethnic troubles broke out in the state.

The President’s Rule, which was imposed on February 13, too, has failed in Manipur, he said and demanded recalling Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla, who took the gubernatorial charge of the trouble-torn state on January 3.

Singh said that the Manipur Governor on Monday had to take a helicopter to fly from Imphal International Airport in order to reach Raj Bhavan, which is around 7 km by road from the airport.

An official said that the Governor arrived in Imphal on Monday afternoon from Delhi and, in view of the protests, he flew in an Army helicopter to reach Kangla Fort, located around 300 metres from the Raj Bhavan.

After a 48-hour shutdown in the six Imphal valley regions on May 21-23, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), the Meitei community apex body, has started their second phase of agitation from May 25 in protest against the removal of the state’s name from a government bus on May 20.

The COCOMI on May 24 announced a series of intensified agitations, including a daily gherao at the main gate of the Governor’s bungalow.

The official said that as part of the agitation, the protesters on Monday assembled in the Kwakeithel area on Tiddim Road and planned to march towards the Raj Bhavan, covering a distance of three km, but they were stopped by the huge contingent of security forces from advancing towards Raj Bhavan.

However, the agitators, including women and students, formed a human chain, covering a stretch of six km from Imphal international airport to Keisampat, around 200 metres away from the Raj Bhavan.

Similar protests are also being held on Tuesday.

The series of agitations started after a media team, en route to cover the opening ceremony of the five-day-long Shirui Lily Festival in Ukhrul district on May 20, was forced to return to Imphal, allegedly after some security personnel blocked their bus at Gwaltabi in Imphal East district and the security personnel reportedly instructed the media team to hide the “Manipur State Transport Corporation” signage in front of the bus carrying 20 journalists and some Information Department officials.

The Congress recently demanded fresh assembly elections in Manipur and claimed that the ground situation in the state was far from normal despite the imposition of the President’s rule on February 13 after the resignation of N Biren Singh from the Chief Minister’s post on February 9.

Congress’ Manipur in-charge Saptagiri Ulaka noted more than two years had passed since the ethnic violence first erupted.

“It has been one of the critical humanitarian catastrophes in India. People feared that this ethnic violence was artificial, and two years have now gone by,” he said.

–IANS

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