School students took to the streets in Manipur's Imphal on Saturday demanding immediate implementation of Inner Line Permit (ILP) in the province.
Students raised slogans and marched on a road disrupting traffic flow. Police resorted to firing tear gas shells as the students did not pay heed to requests to clear the road.
ILP seeks to check the demographic imbalance within the state wherein non-locals outnumber native people of the state.
The state assembly had unanimously passed three bills to implement ILP. However, it was not accepted by certain sections of the tribal people terming them ineffective and innocuous.
In turn Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS), leading the agitation for ILP implementation, submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh last year urging the government to bring a fresh bill to safeguard the aspirations of the indigenous people of Manipur.
A consensus between the protesters and the government remains elusive.
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The ILP system was introduced by the British to protect their commercial interests, particularly in oil and tea, and continues in some northeastern states till now essentially as a mechanism to firewall the tribal peoples and their cultures from onslaughts by outsiders.
The ILP is already in place in other northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.