 Manipur today is a state divided. The conflict between the methi and the kooky, representing over 60% of the state's population, has raged for 50 days. The rest, approximately 35-40% of the population is also involved indirectly in the fallout of this conflict. The divisions are political, physical, socio-economic and even spiritual. The one thing that unites all the communities and everyone here in Manipur at present is an end to the over 50 days of internet shutdown that has led to severe complications and restrictions on people's lives. Before we get further into this story, let's listen in to what a cross-section of the people of Manipur had to say on the subject of the internet shutdown. No one can get money out of the internet. This is the problem. Right now, because all this digital stuff has started. Everything is going on PTM, Google, how long has it been going on? No, it's not going on. All of a sudden, everything has been shut down. What kind of problems are you facing? All the problems have been solved. What do you do? I am an employee of the government. Money is a problem. It is a problem to get money out of the internet. All the problems are solved. All the problems are solved. All the problems are solved. How are you managing it? I am managing it by taking a loan from someone. In my shop, we are selling visitables, not just visitables. Do you use PTM and Google Pay? I use PTM, PhonePay, Google Pay, but it's all shut down. So, it's affecting our business in many ways. Transaction has been all shut down and it's all been closed down. So, we are having very big difficulties. It begins from Tharum-Meh and the internet is blocked in Tharum-Meh and then followed by the Curfew now and it has affected our business in many ways. I think many customers would have been paying by Google Pay and PTM and just like that also because small transactions, government was also pushing for digitization. Even if you do open it, it will reduce the number of customers who will be able to come because people also don't have cash to spend. Obviously, it will affect the business. Not many people are paid by cash. Nowadays, they prefer paying this one, UPI payment and then card payment. So, most of our customers didn't pay by cash. What percentage of customers roughly paid by cash? Not more than 30%. Side effect in terms of people are not able to pay with card or any UPI things because I would say more than 50% of every day that the people's payments are done through online like UPI and other things. So, now without that, there were a lot of challenges with the ATM, with the cash issue and I think that really affected in many ways. If people come also, they have to have cash now. So, sometimes it's difficult to have cash without proper ATM facilities and other things. People are keeping whatever little cash they have for emergency situations. Right, not for luxury or coffee or something. They banned the internet on that three evenings. But if you see the situation, it's almost like two months. It's going to be two months now. But it's getting worse and worse. There's no use of internet ban. And the main behind the internet ban is they try to hide the truth because the transparency of that government is not the review now. The problem is that if they open the internet, I hope that the transparency and everything which should be reviewed. And for the study proposed that it really affected this banning internet for suppose we cannot download and print out this UPSC and mid-card also for like poor people for us. We cannot afford to study abroad also. We have only this state. Our option is only this state. But even in our state also we have no place for us. That is the main problem we have. Do you think there's any benefit of the internet banning? No, there's no benefit. It's getting very difficult. Some lines have been blocked. How will we work? How will we get information? This is the matter of the state. So, no one is going to save the people. Everyone is going to give an exam. It's very difficult to go there. For example, there was a UG exam for NEET. Yes, some children were giving exams. Were there any exams that you could give? Yes, but it was very difficult. It was very difficult to get the information. We cannot do anything without getting the information. We had to go far away from some places. We have to go far away from here. It is clear from these basic testimonies or voices of the people that the lack of access to the internet is compounding the misery that has been created by the conflict itself. So, on the legal front, five petitions have been filed with the Manipur High Court that it is hearing on an urgent basis. These include one grid petition as well. The contention of the petitioners is that the ban, which is essentially an indefinite ban that has now run for over 50 days, is illegal. In the way the state has employed the ban, they have completely ignored the directives of the Supreme Court in the context of the rather obscene case regarding internet shutdowns, which is a landmark judgment in this context. Essentially, the entire population of Manipur has been denied its fundamental rights because of this shutdown. Even in districts, where there have been no reported incidents of violence, including districts like Tengnopal, where from the beginning, from May 3rd, no violence has been reported, no internet access is available to common people. The internet is only accessible in government offices, such as the DC's office, or the DC's office complex in the state, and people have to travel there sometimes many, many miles to do basic things like small banking transactions, as well as more important things, like school exams, school results, applications, and everything that now requires some kind of digital process to be completed. In that context, the next hearing at the High Court is on the 23rd, and the petitioners are hopeful that the High Court will take notice of the kind of impact that everyday people are facing and sort of quash this directive or these orders, by the state that have been enforced since the evening of May 3rd. Newstick will also be presenting a detailed story on the legal aspects of this case very soon. So stay tuned, keep watching our reports from Manipur.