In the talks with the MHA, the Kuki-Zo groups–KNO and UPF– reiterated their demand for a Union Territory with a Legislature, citing land rights, governance failures, and post-2023 violence.
New Delhi, December 13, 2025:
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on December 12 held the second round of tripartite talks with representatives of Kuki-Zo groups under the Suspension of Operations (SoO) framework and officials of the Manipur Government, with discussions centred on the demand for a Union Territory with a Legislature for the Kuki-Zo people.
Senior leaders of the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the United People’s Front (UPF) represented the SoO groups, while the MHA was represented by the Government of India’s Security Advisor for the North East. A senior official attended on behalf of the Manipur Government. According to a statement issued after the meeting, deliberations focused primarily on land rights and governance in Manipur’s hill areas.
During the talks, the KNO and UPF asserted that land ownership in the hill districts of Manipur is “historically and customarily vested in tribal village chiefs.” They alleged that this traditional system of governance has been steadily weakened by successive State government policies.
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“The foundational principle of hill governance has been systematically undermined over the years,” the SoO groups said, arguing that a Union Territory with a Legislature would provide “the only constitutionally consistent framework capable of safeguarding traditional land rights.”
The groups maintained that the demand for a constitutional political solution has moved beyond administrative reorganisation and has become an existential issue.
“The total physical separation of populations since May 3, 2023, and the overt weaponisation of State machinery against tribal citizens are facts on record,” the statement said. “Reintegration under the existing State administrative framework is no longer possible.”
The KNO and UPF further contended that the violence of 2023 was not an isolated episode but “the culmination of decades of aggressive land policies and political coercion aimed at dispossessing tribal communities of their ancestral lands.”
According to the groups, “only a Union Territory Legislature would have the authority and neutrality required to enact and enforce laws capable of halting this long-standing process of dispossession.”
Raising concerns about events preceding the violence, the SoO groups alleged that the Manipur Government had carried out a sustained campaign branding indigenous Kuki-Zo villagers as “encroachers” and “illegal immigrants” to justify eviction drives in hill areas.
“To expect the Manipur Legislative Assembly to legislate fairly on matters concerning tribal land is no longer realistic,” the statement said.
The delegations also alleged that administrative boundaries between the hills and the valley were diluted through executive orders, including those issued in June 2011, which extended the jurisdiction of valley-based police stations into hill subdivisions.
“This placed the security of Kuki-Zo areas in the hands of valley-centric forces during the violence of May 2023, exacerbating the community’s vulnerability,” the statement added.
READ: Press Release
On land administration, the SoO groups alleged that valley-based sub-registrars illegally registered land deeds for properties located in hill districts, creating overlapping jurisdictions across hundreds of villages.
“This practice subverted the authority of the Hill Areas Committee and violated Section 2 of the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960,” they said, adding that “both security and land records must be completely severed from the control of the Manipur State Government.”
In their concluding submissions, the KNO and UPF said the relationship between the Kuki-Zo people and the State of Manipur had collapsed.
“The social contract has broken down beyond repair,” the statement said, arguing that Article 371C had “failed in practice” as the Hill Areas Committee was repeatedly bypassed.
“A people cannot be governed by a government that has enabled its own ethnic cleansing,” the SoO groups said, reiterating that “the creation of a Union Territory with a Legislature remains the only constitutional and viable solution for justice, security, normalcy and lasting peace.”
The statement was jointly issued by the United People’s Front and the Kuki National Organisation.
