Imphal, July 3: The United People’s Front (UPF), having suspension of operation (SoO) agreement, warned that it would review the agreement if the Centre failed to take concrete steps to start a political dialogue before August 22.

The outfit is demanding a separate Kuki state carved out of Manipur.

“The UPF will be compelled to review the SoO agreement in case nothing is done before the next SoO extension which falls on August 22,” information and publicity secretary of the UPF, C. Robinson Thadou, said in a statement today.

The UPF is an umbrella body of Kuki militant groups that signed a tripartite agreement with the Centre and the state government on August 22, 2008. The Kuki National Organisation (KNO), another umbrella body of Kuki militant groups, also signed the same deal the same day.

The cadres of the groups are staying at designated camps and the political dialogue is yet to start.

Thadou accused the Centre of failing to keep its repeated promises to initiate a political dialogue and also commitments made in the agreement.

He said between December 2012 and February this year, home ministry officials had thrice assured them that an interlocutor would be appointed and a political dialogue would start. “But nothing has happened,” Thadou said.

The UPF said the monthly meagre stipends given to the cadres had stopped coming since December last year and the joint monitoring group, which was supposed to meet once every month, had not met in the past seven months.

“Stopping payment of the stipends means to starve or force the cadres to commit violation of the ground rules,” Thadou said.

Most of the designated camps’ infrastructure and requirements for the cadres were not fulfilled though it was agreed upon in the SoO agreement.

Stating that the UPF at a meeting held on June 26 decided to review the SoO agreement, the statement said the meeting had also resolved not to allow inspection of its designated camps by government officials if nothing came before August 22.

The ruling Congress would be boycotted in Kuki-dominated areas in the coming Lok Sabha elections, it said.

“Now the patience of the UPF is wearing thin and crossing all tolerable limits,” the statement said.

The KNO, which is also fighting for a Kuki state, has been pressuring the Centre to initiate political talks.

The Kuki State Demand Committee, a Kuki organisation seeking a Kuki state, had called strikes in Kuki areas on various occasions demanding start of a political dialogue between the Centre and the Kuki militant groups, but there is no sign of start of talks in the near future.