Biren briefs Shah on situation in state
Source: Chronicle News Service

New Delhi, August 25 2023: Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah here and briefed him about the prevailing situation in the restive state, sources said.

Biren Singh also apprised the home minister about the steps taken to bring back normalcy in the state.

Present political situation in Manipur was also discussed at the meeting, the sources said.

A few state ministers were also present at the meeting along with the chief minister.

During the meeting which figured political situation in Manipur among others, Amit Shah reportedly advised N Biren to put maximum efforts to bring back peace and normalcy before the G-20 Summit to be hosted by India in September.

According to a minister who took part the meeting with Amit Shah, speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly Y Khemchand, council of ministers and BJP Manipur Pradesh president A Sharda Devi accompanied CM Biren in the meeting.

Apart from briefing the home minister about the prevailing situation in the state and steps being initiated by state government, CM Biren lauded efforts made by the Union home minister to bring back peace in Manipur.

CM Biren also sought suggestions from the Union home minister regarding the assembly session to be held on August 29, the minister informed.

According to the minister, N Biren also apprised the Union home minister about construction of pre fabricated houses for temporary settlement of people displaced by the ongoing violence and urged the Centre to provide Rs 150-200 crore to help suffering people.

The chief minister further apprised Amit Shah about joint operation being carried out by state police and Central forces to recover/surrender looted arms.

After patient hearing of statements from Biren and council of ministers, Amit Shah said that the Centre will extend every possible help to bring back peace in Manipur and advised the chief minister to put maximum efforts to ensure complete peace in the state and no report of unwanted incident before G-20 summit in September.

Later, N Biren told the media that tension is still high in Manipur but the level of violence in the Naga-Kuki clash in the past was much higher than the present one and both the communities are striving to live peacefully.

He also said that bringing back peace would take some time but both communities in the conflict will surely live together peacefully again.

In his reply to a query, CM Biren said that there is no specific reason for eruption of the present violence and state government is yet to take any action on high court's ruling on ST demand.

He also said that state government cannot take one sided decision as there are 34 different tribes in Manipur.

"We have come here to take the advice of the home minister," Biren said before his meeting with Shah.

The chief minister also said that situation in Manipur has been improving.

The meeting took place ahead of the one-day Monsoon session of the Manipur assembly on August 29.The state cabinet had to recommend the date for convening the assembly session for the second time after the House could not meet on August 21 as no notification was issued by the Raj Bhavan despite the cabinet's earlier recommendation.

Ten Kuki MLAs, including those belonging to the ruling BJP, had expressed their inability to attend the assembly session as the ethnic violence in the state continued.

Naga MLAs had also said they would not be attending the session as they felt Naga peace talks were being hindered by the state government.

Speaking at a programme where temporary shelter homes were handed over to over 300 families in Imphal East district on Wednesday, the chief minister said the situation in Manipur was gradually im proving.

"Our first priority is to rehabilitate the affected people in both hills and the valley.

Pre-fabricated houses are being built at eight sites," he said.

Biren Singh said the apprehension that there might be gun attacks has mostly gone now.

"We believe normalcy will be restored.

This has been possible because of the collective efforts," the chief minis ter said.

The violence in the state erupted 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.

Since then, more than 160 people have died and several hundreds were injured in ethnic clashes in Manipur.

The Meitei community accounts for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley, while tribals, which include Nagas and Kukis, constitute 40 per cent and reside mainly in the hill districts as well as in the plains.

Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament were also badly hit due to the continuous protests by opposition parties over the Manipur violence in the nearly month-long Monsoon session which concluded on August 11.The session started a day after a video of two women being paraded naked by a mob on May 4 in a Manipur village went viral, triggering a nationwide outrage.

The Manipur Police has arrested several accused who were seen in the video.

On July 27, the government decided to hand over the probe into the case of the naked parade of two women to the CBI and filed a petition in the Supreme Court saying the trial of the cases should be conducted outside the state.

(With inputs from PTI) .

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