19-hour Manipur bandh from today

Imphal: Intensifying its stir for implementation of the Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) in Manipur, the Joint Committee on ILPS has called a 19-hour statewide bandh from Monday midnight.
The joint committee is demanding that during the ongoing budget session, the Okram Ibobi Singh government introduce a strong bill that would restrict and regulate the entry of ‘outsiders’ to the state.
A leader of the committee said the bandh has been called against the government’s failure to pass the bill even as some units of the committee, including women and student bodies, abortively tried to storm the assembly on Monday.
A travel document, ILPS restricts ‘outsiders’ from entering and staying in the state without permission. At present, the system is enforced in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram but was withdrawn from Manipur in November, 1950.
Implementation of the system would check the influx of migrants and demographic imbalances wherein non-locals outnumber indigenous people in the state, a leader said.
The assembly had passed The Manipur Regulation of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant Workers’ Bill, 2015, in March. However, the committee rejected it as they claimed it was ineffective. The committee’s convenor-in-charge, Khomdram Ratan, accused the state government of betraying the people by passing the bill.