Imphal: Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh today thanked both Naga and Kuki communities for ensuring free movement of public road transport service along NH-2.
The Chief Minister was addressing the 45th Hawkers’ Day (Newspaper Distributors) Celebration at Haying Khongbal, Imphal. He described that the cooperation and understanding shown by both communities are important steps towards maintaining peace, restoring normalcy and ensuring smooth movement of people and public transport services in the State.
Referring to the reports of unwanted incident occurred at Taphou village in Senapati district yesterday, he said that the MLAs and district authorities persuaded both the communities for ensuring free movement and refrain from any activities that disturbed free movement of the vehicles. Public transport from Imphal was resumed smoothly despite delayed for few hours.
Public transport services along the Imphal-Dimapur-Guwahati route via National Highway-2 continued for the fourth day today. About 300 passengers, including women and children, left Imphal for Dimapur and Guwahati in a fleet of 5 buses and 9 Winger vehicles smoothly.
This comes in the backdrop of Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh’s peace initiatives and reconciliation through dialogue among the communities and following the joint announcement of free movement along the all-National Highways on 8th of this month from the Kangpokpi District Headquarters. Even after reports of some unwanted incidents occurred along the stretches of NH-2, the resumption of public road transport along the highways has been continued uninterrupted. The Chief Minister has been actively involved in bringing all communities together for dialogue and has been visiting various hill districts since February, 2026.
So far around 900 passengers have travelled from Imphal to Dimapur and Guwahati including today’s service. More than 400 passengers have been safely reached Imphal from Dimapur and Guwahati.
Khemchand Singh recalled his last visit to Jiribam district, where communities that had lived together were separated due to the crisis, which began in May 2023. He stated that, under the peace process initiatives taken up by the Government, the gap has been bridged, and the communities are now living together peacefully.
He maintained that dialogue among communities is the solution in bringing peace and development in the State.
As part of the Government’s initiatives to bring peace in the State, some individuals with vested interests do not want peace to prevail, citing the Tronglaobi incident in Bishnupur District, which claimed the innocent lives of two children, he added.
He continued that all the different communities residing in the State have safeguarded the integrity of the State in the past, and we must continue to uphold and protect it for the future. It is not the sole responsibility of the Government to safeguard the State, but a collective effort of all the people living in the State.
A memorandum was submitted by the Hawkers’ Association to the Chief Minister. Shri Khemchand Singh assured that the proposal for providing a corpus fund to the Association would be discussed in the next Cabinet meeting.
The programme organised by The Manipur Hawkers’ Association (Newspaper Distributors) was attended by MLA Patsoi Assembly Constituency Sapam Kunjakeswor Singh; MLA Keirao Assembly Constituency Lourembam Rameshwor Meetei; office bearers of Hawkers’ Association and hawkers among others.
