Visible efforts essential to regain public trust
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: April 25, 2025 -

REGARDLESS of Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla's assurance that 'significant efforts' have been made in the past few months to restore normalcy and ensure that the state progresses on the path of peace and stability, the ground reality is that tension continues to simmer and the prevailing unrest situation is likely to turn volatile any moment.

In his address to the public on the occasion of Khongjom Day observed on Wednesday, the Governor highlighted ongoing initiatives aimed at dignified rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Like it or not, presence of hundreds of displaced families in various relief camps nearly two years after outbreak of the Kuki-Meetei violence underscores that the central and state governments are yet to live up to the expectation of people on both sides of the conflict.

Apart from the relief camp residents enduring serious inconveniences ranging from lack of basic amenities to the displaced children staring at an uncertain future, the extreme step taken by scores of displaced persons to end their life rings out a chilling message that solution continuing to elude the crisis is taking a heavy toll on the violence-effected section of the society.

With frustration notably growing among the displaced families as the unrest situation continues to grip the state despite repeated assurances by both the central and state government authorities that solution would be brought, it seems that the general population, the internally displaced persons in particular, are losing all hopes of enjoying normal life in the real sense, anytime soon.

The government might have taken initiatives to create employment opportunities for the adult IDPs, launched special projects to ensure continuity of education of the displaced children and implemented information technology-based training programmes but such initiatives are akin to rubbing salt on wounds of those parents who are currently bereft of regular income and are forced to live with two square meals a day.

To these crisis affected section of the population, everything sans expeditious resettlement at their place of origin would not be satisfactory as it is but natural that prolonging their stay in the relief camps would be construed as the government hesitating to firmly tackle those elements impeding the process, if any, for proper rehabilitation of the displaced people.

At the juncture, urging the crisis-effected youth to contribute towards building a better Manipur and to uphold the ideals of justice, equality, and brotherhood wouldn't make much of a difference unless an environment conducive to restoring sense of security could be ensured.

Even if it is not possible for return of all the displaced families to their ancestral homes, the government should accord priority in facilitating phasewise resettlement of the IDPs in areas which could be secured with deployment of security forces with adequate strength.

It is equally important that the government give emphasis on unbiased law enforcement so as to restore public faith and ensure lasting peace in the state.

Above everything else, impartial action by security forces is most essential to rebuild trust among the people, failing which possibility of the ordinary citizens taking up arms, yet again, cannot be ruled out.