Himalayan News Service

Imphal, July 6:

Manipur has been hit by a severe shortage of food and medicines with the highway blockade called by a powerful students group entering its 16th day today.

“Stocks of medicines and food are drying up with prices of all essentials shooting up abnormally,” a Manipur government spokesperson said.

The All Naga Students’ Union (ANSU), the apex body of nearly 200,000 students in Nagaland state, had called an indefinite economic blockade from June 20, preventing trucks carrying essentials and other supplies from entering Manipur.

All vehicles from the rest of India have to pass through Nagaland and Assam to reach Manipur. “The highway from Assam to Manipur is also blocked with Naga students enforcing the strike in that section as well,” the spokesperson said.

The blockade by the ANSU is to protest the Manipur government’s decision to observe June 18 each year as Integrity Day. That was the day in 2001 when at least 20 people were killed and dozens wounded in Manipur’s capital Imphal after police opened fire to disperse agitators protesting New Delhi’s decision to extend the jurisdiction of a ceasefire with a Naga tribal separatist group beyond Nagaland to cover Manipur.