The Khasi Students Union (KSU) met Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh today in Imphal over alleged injustices being meted out to members of the Khasi community in that state.
The KSU described the plight of the Khasi inhabitants of Manipur, who reside along the Tamenglong-Jiribam boundary. Khasis have been living in Manipur since the Second World War, first a single village called Khedagar Khasi, the KSU said, and then later on in two other villages – Kamrangha Khasi and Abampunji Khasi. They number only around 1,000 people spread across 30 households.
Most of the Manipuri Khasis are engaged in agriculture, especially in pan-leaf cultivation.
“The Khasis in Manipur have been living peacefully until in recent years when nearby residents from Jiribam started encroaching on Khasi lands in Khedagar Khasi village,” the pressure group informed the CM of Manipur. “Under threat of losing their rightful lands from the massive influx of outsiders, the representatives of Khedagar Khasi village had sent numerous petitions to the concerned authorities to look into the matter and expedite necessary actions but till date no justice had been delivered to the indigenous Khasi settlers.”
The KSU general secretary, Donald V Thabah said that cases of intimidation against them include the forceful construction of illegal structures in the area. A complaint was filed with police on April 12 this year in this regard. Last November, the local Khasi community had also written to the then Minister of Forests to request that encroachment on Khasi land be halted.
“The unabated influx of outsiders and their illegal encroachment poses a serious threat to the very existence of the Khasi community and their ancestral lands, which they have been living on since the British era. The encroachment will also render the Khasi villagers landless to the point of becoming refugees in their own land where they had been born and brought up,” Thabah added, while listing out several requests, namely that encroachment be halted, an eviction drive against “illegal settlers” be organised and for adequate security to be provided to the Khasi villages.
