Imphal, Oct 1 (IANS): Manipur-based United Naga Council (UNC) has called a 48-hour bandh from the midnight of October 3 to press the demand for immediate rollback of the ‘arbitrary creation’ of seven new districts in all Naga-dominated areas of the state.

The UNC has been demanding the rollback of the “arbitrary creation” of seven new districts in December 2016 and reinstatement of status quo.

“The Naga people believe in dialogue and have therefore repeatedly appealed to the authority concerned to redress our grievances through talks. However, having got no concrete response to our plea thus far, the Naga people have resolved to call for a 48-hour total shutdown from the midnight of October 3,” the UNC said in a statement.

The UNC had on September 11 issued an ultimatum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah for redressal of the pending issue of “arbitrary creation” of seven new districts in Manipur in 2016 and warned of intense agitation if the matter was not resolved within 15 days.

The UNC statement said that seven new districts were created arbitrarily by bifurcating parent districts on December 8, 2016 during the Congress regime without any information, consent and knowledge of the stakeholders.

The seven new districts were created dishonoring the four memoranda between the government of Manipur and the Naga people besides the assurance from the government of India in 2011.

The statement said that in protest against the arbitrary creation of seven new districts, mammoth protests, hartals and economic blockades were organised on all the National Highways for 139 days in the state and as many as ten rounds of tripartite talks were held on the issue between the Centre, the Manipur government and the UNC.

“The last talks with the governments were held on March 9, 2019 with the assurance that a concrete proposal shall be placed by the Manipur government in the next round of talks, supposedly proposed to be held by the last week of July 2019,” the UNC statement said.

The UNC said that a missive had been sent to the office of the Special Secretary, Northeast, Ministry of Home Affairs, for resumption of the tripartite talks on January 22, 2024, and a prompt reminder was sent on February 23 but received no response as of yet.

Naga people mostly inhabited six Manipur districts -- Tamenglong, Chandel, Ukhrul, Kamjong Noney and Senapati, which are along the Nagaland and Myanmar borders.

During the 17-month-long ethnic unrest in Manipur between the non-tribal Meitei and the tribal Kuki-Zo community, Naga-inhabited areas remained peaceful.