Kuki-Zo Council objects to ‘renewed makes an attempt’ to implement regulation taking away tribal chiefs’ land rights

The Kuki-Zo Council (KZC) on Monday (December 1, 2025) expressed “sturdy objections” to what it known as “renewed makes an attempt” by the Manipur Authorities to operationalize a decades-old regulation that takes away land possession rights of tribal chiefs within the Hill areas of Manipur.

The KZC, a coalition of Kuki-Zo civil society organizations arrange within the shadow of the ongoing ethnic disturbance within the state, cited a letter dated November 24 this 12 months from the Residence Division of the Manipur Authorities.

As per this letter, the Residence Division had requested authorities within the Land Sources and Tribal Affairs and Hill areas departments to take up this problem on the “earliest”, based mostly on a illustration from the Manipur Meetei Tribes Union (MMTU)

The illustration from the MMTU known as for the implementation of the Manipur Hill Areas (Acquisition of Chiefs’ Rights) Act, 1967. This regulation took away the normal land possession of Scheduled Tribe chiefs within the hill areas of the State and stopped the hereditary switch of land possession from one chief to the opposite. Whereas the regulation acquired Presidential Assent in the identical 12 months, it was by no means operationalised.

The KZC mentioned, “The very notion {that a} non-tribal group is proposing elementary modifications to tribal land governance highlights deep disregard for tribal rights.” The Council mentioned that this was coming when Manipur was nonetheless in a “state of battle and displacement” and that such a “destabilising” transfer was “deliberate” and “dangers additional escalation”.

“We urge the Hon’ble Governor of Manipur to intervene urgently and be sure that this matter will not be taken ahead beneath current circumstances,” the KZC mentioned of their assertion.

Even after the ethnic battle started, erstwhile Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had in 2024 mentioned in Parliament that his authorities would velocity up the implementation of the regulation, following which BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh had additionally known as for a similar on social media.

Moreover, the KZC mentioned, “We’re equally involved by the North Jap Council’s announcement on 27 November 2025 that 2.13 crores has been sanctioned for a Hill chiefs’ Visitor Home at Palace Compound, Imphal — a location the place Kuki-Zo chiefs and residents can’t safely enter right now.”