New Delhi, August 6
The failure of the Ibobi Singh government in Manipur to ensure the lifting of the economic blockade on the National Highway- 39 by the All Naga Students Association of Manipur (ANSAM) has prompted the Centre to initiate certain emergency measures to prevent the situation from getting out of hand.

While the Centre today ensured the airlifting of about 45 tonnes of essential items from Guwahati in Assam to Manipur Capital Imphal, to bridge the shortfall, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil has asked Home Secretary V. K. Duggal to visit Imphal soon to assess the ground situation and find a way to ensure the withdrawal of blockade by Naga outfits.

Mr Duggal is expected to visit Manipur either on August 11 or on August 17, sources said.

Taking serious note of the prevailing situation in Manipur, the Home Secretary has also called a meeting of the chief secretaries, home secretaries and directors- general of police of Manipur, Assam and Nagaland next week to review the situation.

Meanwhile, the Centre has received a report from state Governor S S Sidhu in which he is understood to have made a veiled attack on the decision of the state government to declare June 18 as a state holiday to mark Integration Day and remarked that “the crisis could have been avoided.”

The Ibobi Singh government had declared the day as a state holiday last year in memory of 14 persons who were killed in “integrity agitation” of June 2001 in Imphal.

Joint Secretary in Union Home Ministry Rajeev Agarwal today told newspersons that the state government was already holding talks with the agitating students and “if necessary, the Centre will also hold talks.”

While the National Highway -39 remaining blocked, the Centre, with the help of the Border Roads Organisation, had opened National Highway -53 to facilitate essential commodities like petrol, gas and medicine to reach Manipur, he said.

Mr Agarwal said more than 1,000 trucks carrying petroleum products and food grains have reached Manipur through National Highway-53.

Asked whether there was some shortage of essential drugs, he said:”The state has informed us that while there was no short supply of generic drugs, there was a scarcity of branded drugs, which have been now airlifted through Indian Airlines.”