Govt urged to convene meet for amicable solution
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, September 04 2023:
Indigenous People's Forum, Manipur (IPFM) has urged chief minister N Biren to convene an emergency formal gathering of all stakeholders and CSOs concerned to hammer out an amicable solution pertaining to the ethnic conflict in the state.
In a letter to CM N Biren sent on Monday, IPFM president Ashang Kasar conveyed that it has been four months since the worst violence broke out on May 3 following the Tribal Solidarity March under the auspices of All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) in the inter district border of Bishnupur and Churachandpur which soon spread like wild fire to other parts of the state.
"The sons and daughters of Ima Manipur are bleeding, crying and wailing in the wilderness for help, protection and succour.
More than 60,000 people have been rendered homeless and now they are internally displaced seeking refuge in government run relief camps set up in different parts of the state.
Every now and then, exchange of fire, gun battles and skirmishes are taking place in peripheral areas of the valley resulting in deaths of more than two hundred people," it said.
IPFM feared that the peace loving citizens of Manipur have been abandoned, forgotten and forsaken by the state and Union governments.
Due to this protracted carnage agricultural activities and other economic sectors have been severely hampered resulting in the loss of thousands of crores of revenue to the state exchequer along with disrupting academic calendar and taking heavy toll on daily wage earners.
The situation has been aggravating day by day, it also pointed out.
IPFM further implored the CM to call an urgent sitting of all stakeholders to seek an early settlement to the ongoing communal madness, while cautioning that unless the government does something, the situation will go out of hand.