Both Meitei, Kuki communities must learn to live and co-exist together: Scindia on Manipur violence

New Delhi: Union Minister for Communications and Development of North Eastern Region Jyotiraditya Scindia on Saturday said both the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur must learn to live and co-exist together.

Ethnic violence has been going on in Manipur since May 3 last year after a tribal solidarity march was taken out in the hill districts of the northeastern state to protest against the majority Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

More than 220 people, including members of both the Kuki and Meitei communities and security personnel, have been killed in the continuing violence.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of North East Students Festival, Scindia said the principle of unity in diversity should be followed by every citizen of the country.

"This is an issue which has been present since the last many many decades. We are all praying that both sides will certainly, hopefully live in peace, come together. They must learn to live and co-exist together," he said when asked about the violence in Manipur.

Talking about development in the north east, the minister said the entire 25,000 villages that do not have mobile phone networks will be connected with mobile services at the earliest and "hopefully by next year".

Scindia said the north east has become the first pillar of India at present.

He said that investment in railways has gone up by 11 times.

"We had nine airports in the north east. Today we have 17 airports in the north east. My Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim didn't have a single airport. Today Arunachal has three airports. Sikkim has its own airport. Connectivity has increased from 900 flights per week to almost 1900 flights per week," Scindia said.

The minister said there are tremendous potentials in the north east be it sports or entrepreneurship.

Scindia said that his ministry would organise an "Ashtalakshmi Mahotsav" by the end of this year to showcase the culture richness of the north east and will also be a platform for economic development for the north eastern states.