Manipur Assembly to convene on March 9, budget likely during week-long session

Imphal, March 6: As administrative peace returns back to conflict hit Manipur, the new session of the Manipur Assembly will begin from March 9, and the Budget is scheduled to be presented during the proceedings.

The previous one-day session was held on Thursday after a popular Government was formed in the State.

Yumnam Khemchand Singh was sworn in as the Chief Minister on the previous day after the President’s Rule was revoked from the state which has been rocked by ethnic violence since 2023.

According to a notification, the session will begin at 11 am on March 9.

The notification did not mention when the session would conclude, but officials said that the proceedings would be held for at least a week, and the Budget would also be tabled.

Ruling BJP MLA Tongbram Robindro Singh had on February 28 said that the Budget Session would be held after the Holi festival.

Meanwhile, a separate notification signed by Chief Secretary Puneet Kumat Goel stated, “The forthcoming Assembly Session will begin on March 9, 2026. All departments are required to submit the Annual Administrative Report for 2025-26 for placing the same before the House.”

Manipur witnessed the outbreak of ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities in May 2023, leading to the imposition of the President’s Rule in February last year.

The Assembly had been kept under suspended animation.

The State has been witnessing ethnic violence since May 3, 2023, after a tribal solidarity march was taken out in the hill districts, in protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Since then, at least 260 people, including members of both the Kuki and Meitei communities as well as security personnel, were killed in the violence, while thousands have been rendered homeless.

PTI