Imphal: Manipur BJP MLA Rajkumar Emo Singh on Monday requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to withdraw central forces from the state and allow state security personnel to take charge. Rajkumar Emo wrote a letter to Home Minister Shah saying that peace has not been maintained in Manipur due to the presence of around 60,000 central forces.

According to news agency PTI, he wrote in the letter, 'The presence of about 60,000 central forces in Manipur is not bringing peace, so it is better to remove such forces, which are mostly present as mute spectators.' He acknowledged the recent action of withdrawing some units of Assam Rifles due to lack of cooperation with the state government and the public.

Demand to transfer command authority

He said, 'We are pleased with the action taken to remove some units of Assam Rifles who were not cooperating with the state government and the public, but if the presence of these and other central forces cannot stop the violence then it is better to remove them and allow the state forces to take charge and bring peace.'

Rajkumar Imo Singh proposed that the central government transfer the unified command authority headed by the chief minister to the state government. He criticised the current system as ineffective in curbing violence and argued that it was important to transfer the unified command to the elected government at this time.

The responsibility was handed over to the former DG of CRPF

He said, 'The central government will have to hand over the unified command to the state government headed by the Chief Minister and allow it to act according to the procedures laid down by law to bring peace and normalcy in the state.' It is worth noting that after the violence spread in the state last year, the Home Ministry had appointed former CRPF Director General Kuldeep Singh as the security advisor to the Manipur government.

Rajkumar also called on the central government to take strict action against militant and insurgent groups that have violated the ground rules of the Suspension of Operations (SOO) agreement. He urged the Home Minister to cancel the SOO agreements with these groups, which he claims are fuelling further violence.