The eight-member delegates of CPIML, All India Progressive Women’s Association, and All India Lawyers Association for Justice on Sunday lambasted both the central and state government for their failure to resolve the crisis even after three months.
The team maintained that the extreme segregation and hostility between the two warring communities in Manipur is the gift of the double-engine BJP government to Manipur on the nation’s 75th Independence Day. The Manipur crisis is an accident but a political mishap of the double-engine government, the team added.
The team also maintained that the primary crisis resolution step at the moment should be the resignation of the incumbent Chief Minister N Biren Singh.
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The eight-member team arrived in Manipur on August 10 and since then have visited various relief camps in Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Imphal.
Speaking to media at Manipur Press Club, Majorkhul, leader of the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist (CPIML) Karnataka Clifton D’ Rozario highlighted that the government was still struggling to mete out proper relief and rehabilitation even after three months of the crisis.
“We had visited several relief camps both in the hills and valley and made several key observations such as lack of proper sanitation, hygiene and medical facilities in the relief camps; one relief camp in Imphal cooked their food near the toilet which was hard to watch,” he said.
He stated that the Manipur chief minister who had lost the trust and fate of its people should step down. The failure of the state governments on all fronts was the one primary complaint that all relief camp inmates shared during our visit, he added.
“The country has witnessed numerous ethnic and religious conflicts but not on this magnitude; we have not seen such a sharp divide between two communities anywhere,” he said.
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As such he pointed out that the team would meet the governor in the last leg of their visit to apprise her about the whole situation.
We will tell what we have found and also raise this issue on the national platforms, he added.
The team called on Governor Anusuiya Uikey on Sunday and apprised her of the prevailing situations of the relief camps and the hardships faced by the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) staying in the camps.
The team informed the Governor that there has been an ethnic segregation which has resulted in shortage of foods, medicines etc.
According to a press release from the Raj Bhavan, the visiting team told the governor that they have visited different relief camps in Imphal West, Kangpokpi and Churachandpur districts where they witnessed the issue of sanitation, issue of privacy for women and overcrowding.
There has been a shortage of doctors in Kangpokpi and Churachandpur districts and the issue of trauma care, counselling, meditation and yoga sessions have been raised, they said.
The Governor heard their concerns and informed them that necessary arrangements have been made to provide adequate food and medicines to the IDPs in the camps, the Raj Bhavan said. She said relief and rehabilitation measures are in place and as a temporary measure, prefabricated houses are being built and the IDPs will be shifted to the houses in both hill and valley.
