Manipur: Court admits PIL regarding humanitarian crisis faced by people in Kwatha village
Imphal: The High Court in Manipur has taken up a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking intervention in a humanitarian crisis at Kwatha village in Tengnoupal district.
A humanitarian crisis for the people of the village in Kwatha is because of the violence the state has been facing for the last seven months.
Kwatha is the last Meitei village in the Tengnoupal district bordering Myanmar on the south.
This small village with a population of 370 is facing untold hardships due to the ongoing communal strife in the state.
While the Meiteis residing in Moreh fled from their homestead amid the communal clashes, the Meiteis in Kwatha about 20 km from Moreh are still guarding their territory.
At these critical hours, the Meiteis in Kwatha are facing untold hardships due to reportedly being cut off from the rest of the state. The Kwatha Meitei village is surrounded by the six Kuki villages.
To address their issues the High Court of Manipur has allowed a PIL filed by Kongjengbam Chingkham of Singjamei, Imphal.
The PIL states that the villagers are unable to enter or go out of their village owing to the current tension between the Meiteis and the Kukis that started on May 3, 2023.
The Court has fixed to hear the PIL on January 24, 2024. Advocate Naorem Umakanta Singh and his associates appeared on behalf of the petitioner.
The Meiteis of Manipur lived in Kwatha village.
It is a small, neglected village of Manipur tucked along the Indo-Myanmar border and tracing its history back to the 1819 Burmese now Myanmar invasion.
Kwatha, which has 61 households and a population of 370, is a remote village that is 20 km from Manipur’s border trade hub of Moreh and 129 km from the state capital.