The Foothills Naga Coordination Committee (FNCC) strongly rejected the claims made by Kuki civil society organisations regarding the alleged burning of a village named. “K.Songlung”, terming the allegations false and misleading.
FNCC clarified that no recognised village was targeted and asserted that the structures dismantled were three in number, that linked to the illegal poppy cultivation. It further clarified that the occupants of the farmhouses arrived there only during the year 2017 last, constructed temporary shelters and began poppy cultivation on surrounding hill-slopes, causing deforestation and making illegal land claims.
The committee further cited the Manipur (Hill Areas Village Authority)Act, 1956 which stipulates that a village should comprise a minimum of 20 households to be legally recognised. There is no village named K.Songlung or K Songlung (II) listed in the Manipur Gazette. What existed at the site, the committee said, were three temporary structures erected for poppy cultivation on what it described as Naga ancestral land.
NO VILLAGE BURNT, ONLY ILLEGAL POPPY FARMHOUSES RAZED: FNCC
