Union Home Minister reviews Manipur situation at a high-level meeting

New Delhi/Imphal, June 17 (IANS) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired a high-level meeting in New Delhi to review the law and order situation in Manipur, which has been ravaged by ethnic violence since May last year.  

Manipur government officials said that the state officials apprised the Home Minister about the ongoing situation in the northeastern state.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Intelligence Bureau Director Tapan Deka, Army chief, General Manoj Pande, Army chief-designate Lt General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi, Advisor to the Manipur government, Kuldiep Singh, state Director General of Police Rajiv Singh and other senior officers attended the meeting.

However, Manipur government officials in Imphal refused to disclose the outcome of the meeting.

Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday and discussed the situation in the state. She apprised the President about the hardships faced by the displaced persons sheltered in various relief camps in the state, and requested immediate action for their resettlement in their respective villages, the sources said. "The Governor also requested the President to provide financial assistance for the displaced people in the state," a source said.

Manipur Raj Bhawan sources said that the President assured to extend all possible support.

The Governor also met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at Rashtrapati Bhavan and requested financial assistance for Manipur.

The ethnic strife in Manipur since May 3 last year has left over 50,000 men, women and children belonging to different communities displaced and are now sheltered in 350 camps set up in schools, government buildings, and auditoriums in Manipur. Currently. tension has been prevailing in Manipur's mixed-population Jiribam district, adjoining southern Assam, since the killing of 59-year-old farmer Soibam Saratkumar Singh on June 6. Additional CRPF troopers have been deployed in the interior areas of its Borobekra subdivision to maintain peace and tranquillity.

Around 900 tribals belonging to the Kuki and Hmar communities took shelter at the homes of relatives and friends in two villages – Haokippunji and Hmarkhawlienin - in the Cachar district of southern Assam, after violence broke out. Due to the violence and burning of over 100 houses and other properties including two check gates of the police, around 1,000 people, mostly belonging to the Meitei community, are now sheltered in seven relief camps in Jiribam, which is inhabited by Meiteis, Nagas, Kukis, Muslims and non-Manipuris.

--IANS

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