As the state government intensifies its mass eviction drive to clear land for road widening, villagers of Leimakhongmapal under Lamlai constituency in Imphal East staged a sit-in protest today, declaring that they will not leave the land where generations have lived and died.
Protesters claimed that elders over 100 years of age said they had witnessed the Imphal-Ukhrul road being carved out in the 1960s and have lived along it ever since.
“We are being painted as illegal occupants overnight. This is our ancestral ground. Kill us first before eviction,” they said.
Residents recalled that the stretch now marked for clearance has been their home for decades, forming the backbone of their livelihood and identity.
