Imphal: Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Friday inspected the sites for establishment of pre-fabricated homes for people displaced by ethnic violence and said that a section of those houses will be set up on the campus of a sericulture institute in Bishnupur district.
The government is working on the settlement of the affected families till normalcy is restored, Singh said at Kwakta during his first visit to affected areas outside the state capital since the violence broke out on May 3. Earlier this week, he had said that the state government has decided to build 3,000-4,000 pre-fabricated houses within two months to accommodate people who had to flee from their houses during the ongoing violence in the northeastern state that claimed more than 100 lives.
Prefabricated houses are ready-made structures that are constructed off-site and assembled at the place where the homes will be set up. "The affected families will be temporarily housed in the classrooms and hostels of the Sericulture Training Institute campus at Kwakta. Around 500 pre-fabricated homes would be set up inside the campus," the chief minister told reporters at Kwakta.
Singh condemned the IED explosion at Kwakta on the night of June 21 in which two teenagers and a 7-year-old boy were injured. "Investigation is on to find the culprits," he said. Singh also met representatives of women of Moirang who had come out on the streets after learning that the chief minister had come to the district.
The chief minister urged people not to block the movement of security personnel on the street. More than 100 people have lost their lives in the ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki communities in the northeastern state so far. Clashes first broke out on May 3 after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals - Nagas and Kukis - constitute another 40 per cent of the population and reside in the hill districts. (PTI)
