Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has once again reiterated that permanent houses for displaced families would be constructed at original places by the state government.
N Biren Singh announced this during the inauguration and handing over of temporary shelter homes for displaced families at a solemn function held at Sajiwa Jail Complex, Imphal East on Wednesday.
The shelter homes were constructed under the Scheme for Providing Temporary Shelter to Displaced Families for 3,000 shelter units.
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.
Speaking on the occasion, CM Biren 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.
The chief minister recalled that many innocent people from both hill and valley regions had been taking shelter at different relief camps following the unfortunate incident that happened on May 3 this year. For relocating these displaced people, temporary shelter homes are being constructed at different locations, he informed.
Biren further informed that the temporary shelter homes are being constructed 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 will return soon and gave credit for this, to the support of various civil society organizations, churches, women organisations, 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 Socio-economic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), which show 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 rise in standard if living 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 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.
