ZCA warned that attempts to centralize land registration in Imphal threaten tribal safeguards and vowed not to part with “a single inch” of land.
BY PC Bureau
September 21: The Zomi Chiefs’ Association (ZCA) has strongly condemned the September 18 notification issued by the Manipur Land Resources Department, which seeks to implement a uniform, centralized land registration system across the state, including the constitutionally protected tribal hill areas.
In a statement, the ZCA described the order as “illegal, unconstitutional, and a direct assault on tribal rights.”
“The root cause of Manipur’s ethnic conflict is plain: Meitei greed for tribal land,” the association declared, accusing successive governments of attempting to erode tribal protections enshrined in law.
The ZCA hit out at what it called “false claims” by sections of the Meitei community that they are barred from tribal lands. “If the law truly barred them, how did they manage to acquire and occupy so much land in our towns and villages?” the release asked.
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The association also rejected suggestion made in a recent article in a local newspaper, The Sangai Express, ( dated September 19) suggesting that Meitei internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the valley should be resettled in their “original homes” and “native villages” in Churachandpur. Calling the claim “absurd, ahistorical, and unacceptable,” the ZCA asserted: “Lamka has never been, and will never be, a Meitei ‘native village’.”
Tracing the history of the Zo-Meitei relationship, the ZCA reminded that the Zo people never surrendered their sovereignty. “The Meitei Raja signed an Instrument of Accession surrendering all his powers; the Zo never did, and we still rule our hills,” the release stated.
It further alleged that since Independence, “large tracts of our land—particularly in areas bordering the valley districts—have already been merged without our consent.” The association vowed: “We can no longer part with a single inch of our land, at any cost.”
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The ZCA said the latest order fits into a larger pattern of land law changes aimed at undermining tribal rights. It cited amendments to the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act of 1960, the 2020 suspension of land registration, the 2021 Office Memorandum imposing restrictions, the 2023 amendment to the Sale Deed Registration Rules, and now the 2025 notification.
“The pattern is deliberate and unmistakable: to centralize all land registration in Imphal and systematically strip the tribal peoples of their constitutional safeguards,” the statement charged.
Final Warning and Demand
Calling the notification an “existential threat,” the ZCA said repeated assaults on tribal lands have left them with no choice but to escalate their long-standing political demand. “These repeated assaults leave us with no choice but to reiterate our long-standing demand: a Union Territory with legislature for the Zo people of Manipur—the only arrangement that can safeguard our constitutional rights and ancestral lands.”
The association urged all tribal bodies to oppose the order and demanded its immediate withdrawal.
