Economic blockade will not impact poll process in Manipur: EC

The economic blockade will not impact the polling process in the state. 250 companies of central police forces will be arriving in the state for poll duty.

Imphal, Feb 16: Manipur Chief Electoral officer Vivek Kumar Dewangan on Thursday said the ongoing economic blockade will "not impact" the poll process in the state, where assembly elections are scheduled on March 4 and March 8.

"The economic blockade will not impact the polling process in the state. 250 companies of central police forces will be arriving in the state for poll duty. We have trained the poll personnel so that elections can be held without any problem.

"Even the group who have called this blockade have not given any call to boycott the elections. So we do not think that this blockade will impact the poll process," Dewangan told. Polling for the 60-seat Manipur assembly will take place in two phases on March 4 and March 8 respectively. Results will be declared on March 11.

The full team of EC had on Tuesday reviewed the situation via video conference with the state chief electoral officer, the police chief, the chief secretary, the additional chief secretary of home and officials of Indian Oil Corporation.

An indefinite economic blockade imposed by the United Naga Council (UNC) since November 1, 2016 is on in Manipur, against the state government's decision of creating seven new districts in the land-locked state by bifurcating the existing ones and upgrading Sadar Hills to a full-fledged district.

The state government had, however, claimed that the decision was taken to improve administrative efficiency. Supply of essential commodities, including fuel to Manipur has been severely hit, shooting up the prices of essentials since UNC declared indefinite economic blockade on NH2 (via Dimapur) and NH 37 (via Jiribam), the two lifelines of the state.

PTI