Imphal: Evoking the epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said the present violent ethnic clashes in Manipur are a fight between demons who want to destroy the state and gods who love and want to protect their homeland.
The violence has woken up our people from their deep slumber. Like in the Mahabharata and Ramayana that fought between good and evil in different eras, the violence has occurred to make our indigenous people realise how the devils are trying to destroy our fabric and beautiful society, the chief minister stated this while handing over the fabricated shelter homes to over 400 displaced families especially from Ekou village at Sajiwa Jail complex in Imphal East on Wednesday.
Biren further assured that his government with the full support of the Central government will not stop collecting biometric data so as to detect immigrants who are illegally sheltering in different districts in Manipur. This is not against any community. Nothing else, he added.
Stating that such a scale of violence was never expected in the state, the Chief Minister said the so-called court order on ‘tribal status demand’ wasn’t even discussed and responded to by his government at all. But because of the sudden violence, a large number of innocent people had to flee their homes.
Manipur is a state which has a rule of law and nobody will be allowed to bring it with their own whim and fancies. Let the god of peace crush such devils, he declared.
Displaced persons
The Chief Minister maintained that rehabilitation of persons displaced due to the ongoing unrest in the State is the utmost priority of the Government. As such, prefabricated shelter homes which have been constructed near Sajiwa Jail are being handed over for relocation of 400 displaced families as the first phase, he added.
Biren further informed that the temporary shelter homes are being constructed at eight different locations at a total cost of around Rs. 149 crore, of which an amount of Rs. 101 crore had already been disbursed from the Prime Minister’s Office through the Union Home Minister. Stating prefabricated houses are being constructed to rehabilitate displaced people temporarily, he informed that permanent houses would also be constructed at their original places in the meantime and a survey has been started for the same.
He maintained that the State Government had been putting in every effort to restore normalcy in the State and also to bring back the normal lives of affected people in all aspects.
Stating that the situation in the State is coming back to normal, he informed that security personnel deployed had started carrying out duties at their respective places. He expressed hopefulness that normalcy would return soon and gave credit for this, to the support of various civil society organisations, churches, women’s organizations, and other stakeholders.
The Chief Minister mentioned that displaced families would be given priority under the One Family One Livelihood scheme of the Government and added that certain teams of Government officials had been constituted for the same.
Informing the report of NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), which shows the rise of living standard of Manipur, he cited various welfare schemes of the State Government, including School Fagathansi Mission, Chief Minister-gi Hakshelgi Tengbang, Start-Up and others, as the reason behind the rise in living standard of the people of Manipur. He stated that people earlier were not able to maintain savings, as most of their incomes were drained towards expenses on children’s education, healthcare and others.
During the programme, benefits under different schemes including the One Family One Livelihood scheme, Old Age Pension scheme, Chief Minister’s Widow Pension Scheme, LPG connection and others were distributed to beneficiaries currently taking shelter at relief camps.
The handing-over programme was attended by Forest, Environment and Climate Change Minister Th. Biswajit, MAHUD Minister Yumnam Khemchand, Health Minister Dr. Sapam Ranjan, Social Welfare Minister Heikham Dingo, Transport Minister Khasim Vashum, MLAs Thounaojam Shyamkumar, Thongam Shanti, Dr. Usham Deben, Thangjam Arunkumar, Khongbantabam Ibomcha, Sapam Kunjakeswor and senior Government officials among others.
