Firefight begins, with new Governor

Part of the Manipur package could also be setting up a monitoring panel that would address public grievances on the alleged misuse of the Act.

While the panel constitution is still to be decided, a retired High Court judge may be asked to head the committee with officials drawn from the Home Ministry and the state government. The basic mandate of the panel would be to look into complaints of alleged abuse of the Act by security forces.

In Imphal, politicians felt that a gesture from New Delhi on the Act was ‘‘overdue’’ with protests spinning out of control. Students continued to clash with police and 70 people courted arrest today. Opposition legislators have planned a dharna tomorrow.

Opposition leader I Hemochandra Singh, who has been leading the campaign against the Act, said it would be ‘‘a good thing if the Government were to phase out outdated Acts.’’

‘‘The fact that the Act has been around for 40 years and still hasn’t cured anything should tell us something,’’ Hemochandra said. Acknowledging that insurgency was ‘‘a serious problem,’’ he maintained that ‘‘some accountability was essential.’’ His suggestion: ‘‘A modified Act should replace the current one.’’

While the Centre let Dave’s term run out, sources pointed out that the reports he had been sending to Delhi did not reflect the real ground situation and level of civil unrest in the state.

It’s another matter that the state government is led by a Congress Chief Minister, Okram Ibobi Singh. ‘‘Removal of NDA-appointee Dave would also be a facesaver for the CM,’’ sources said. The decision to deny Dave an extension was taken by the Prime Minister — Sonia Gandhi too met him today — and this was followed by meetings with leaders of Left parties, BJP and Samajwadi Party.

Manmohan Singh met CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet and CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, Amar Singh from SP and Leader of Opposition L K Advani. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Shivraj Patil were also present during the meetings.

S S Sidhu, who will be moving into the Imphal Raj Bhavan, told The Indian Express that ‘‘the ongoing problems will be definitely on my mind’’ but he was silent on any ‘‘healing touch’’ brief that he may have been given.

‘‘More than 20 companies of Central paramilitary forces have already been deployed in the state in the past 10 days. This is in addition to 13 battalions of Assam Rifles, four of the Army and eight of the CRPF already in place in the state. The 44 Brigade of the Army is also in process of moving to Chandel on Manipur’s border with Myanmar,’’ an official disclosed.

In a two-pronged strategy — also taking care of the external factor — the GOC-in-C (Eastern Command) Lt Gen J S Verma was in Myanmar to obtain latest intelligence on the movement of North East insurgents and finalise Phase-II of Op Hifazat.

Under Op Hifazat — the continuing operations against insurgent groups active in Manipur, many of whom have set up camps inside Myanmar territory — armies of both India and Myanmar have been cooperating. They have been sharing information and intelligence on insurgent groups over the past few months.