Lok Sabha MP Alfred Arthur Demands New Budget Addressing Manipur’s Plight

Ukhrul, Mar 11: Lok Sabha MP Alfred Kanngam S. Arthur, denouncing the budget for Manipur during the 2025 budget session, has called for a new budget that separately addresses the needs of the Manipur hills and the valley, ensuring it reflects the pain and hardships faced by the strife-torn people of the state.

Speaking during the budget session in Parliament today, the Lok Sabha MP from the Outer Manipur Constituency stated that the budget for Manipur, as well as the supplementary grants for 2024-25, were anti-people for failing to account for the over 60,000 displaced individuals and the damage to homes and properties. He estimated that the total damage alone exceeded 20 thousand crores, while the entire budget for the state did not reflect this.

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“The separation of the hills and valley is mandatory. There is no such separation in the current budget. How will we know what is allocated to the hills and what is allocated to the valley? Nobody would know anything, and for that reason, I urge the Honorable Finance Minister to set this aside and bring forward an actual budget and demands for grants so we can discuss what is being allocated to the hills and valleys, as well as address the pain and hardship the state is enduring,” the MP said.

Alfred Arthur emphasized that Manipur has a law enshrined in Article 371C, and as per the 1972 Presidential Proclamation by President V.V. Giri, it states: “Before any five-year plans or annual plans of the state are finalized by the government of the state, proposals in this behalf, which shall show separately the plans and schemes proposed to be taken up in the hills and the rest of the state, shall be placed before the committee, and the views of the committee shall be taken into account before the plans are finalized.”

Quoting this, he stated that he believes in the Constitution and is certain that the House does too. However, he pointed out that they had already bypassed the Constitution in the current budget.

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He questioned why the budget, a simple document and a demand for grants, was made so complicated. He stated that the law of the nation clearly prohibits the creation of disproportionate assets, and when such assets are created, problems inevitably arise. He also highlighted that the hills, which cover 90 percent of Manipur, are predominantly inhabited by tribal communities.

The MP recalled meeting President Ram Nath Kovind, Amit Shah, and the PM’s representative in 2021, where he presented the administrative challenges faced in the hills of Manipur. It was a full delegation of the Hill Area Committee, and the esteemed leaders assured that the grievances would be addressed, he said. He expressed surprise that, despite the state making nominal provisions, the union government, which is responsible for ensuring the legislation of business regarding the budget of Manipur as established by law, had not yet adhered to it.

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Informing the House that he had chaired six DISHA meetings, he said that the marginalized and the poor, including those from his constituency, were surviving on NREGA. Citing reports from district collectors in the DISHA meetings across all departments, he stated that 50 percent of the program components for 2023 and 2024 had not been released. Additionally, nothing had been released for 2025 yet, and the man-days were limited to 25 in a year.

Furthermore, the MP stated that all schemes, including the national pension schemes, widows’ schemes, and others, apart from NREGA, were last released in March 2023. He questioned the purpose of these schemes if they were not being implemented. He criticized the budget as a replica of the previous one, which had consistently failed to address the state’s needs.

Asserting that “the nation needs to grow,” he pointed out that Manipur has the lowest per capita income in the country. Over 90 percent of the state is hilly and remains underdeveloped with no scope for growth, he said, questioning why the NITI Aayog, the state government, or the central government had not made course corrections to increase the GSDP.

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The MP challenged the Finance Minister and the Transport Minister to visit his constituency, which spans 20 thousand square kilometers.

“I will show you the kind of roads your ministry is providing, and you will ask, ‘Are these the roads you are providing? Are you serious that budgets are allocated?’” He also cited a report from the NIHDL Committee, stating that work orders were issued before lands were acquired, and the schemes existed only on paper without delivering any results.

Regarding the political turmoil in the state, he questioned what had happened to the Chief Minister, who was caught on tape admitting that he started the conflict. He expressed disappointment that no investigation had been initiated, stating that hope was diminishing by the day.

“Building the nation requires building Manipur. If you don’t want to build my state, you have no right to govern it,” he said. He added that although Manipur is a small state, its people are not small. “We are equal in every way to the nation,” he asserted.

He expressed dissatisfaction with the House for failing to address the grievances of the state despite repeated appeals.

“Rising to speak again and again, yet not being heard, and seeing no execution at the ground level… do you know how much it hurts?” he questioned.

Alfred Arthur further stressed that people are on the streets with no homes to return to, yet the budget did not reflect their plight. However, he stated that although today’s budget did not address any part of the affected population, he still holds hope for more from the national leaders.

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