Guwahati: The Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has urged the state government to protect the land and residences of people displaced by the ongoing violence, for their eventual resettlement.
In a letter dated 8 September to the Manipur chief secretary, the human rights panel has also called for formal education to be provided to displaced students at relief camps, besides ensuring healthcare services for all inmates as well as livelihood opportunities.
The panel has also recommended that the “government should take up necessary action to recover all the arms and ammunitions which were looted from police armouries and the Churachandpur Gun House”.
The letter, written by MHRC Secretary Haoban Rosita, comes as Manipur remains tense four months after ethnic tensions erupted in violence between the state’s Kuki and Meitei communities.
The panel’s recommendations are based on observations drawn from visits to relief camps and other places by a team led by MHRC Chairperson Justice U.B. Saha (Retd) on 30 August and 5 September.
The team visited relief camps in Churachandpur and Imphal East districts where violence-hit residents of hill and valley districts have taken shelter, besides interacting with the deputy commissioners and other officials in Kakching and Thoubal districts.
The MHRC chairperson inspected the living conditions of the internally displaced persons at the camps, and arrangements made by the district administration, including the availability of basic necessities like food, cleanliness, hygiene & sanitation, besides assessing medical requirements and educational needs of children.
The letter stated that the arrangements made by the district administration at some of the relief camps in Churachandpur were “not satisfactory”.
“The inmates including kids and newborn babies were found sleeping on tarpaulin sheets, they were not provided mattresses and blankets,” said the letter, a copy of which has been accessed by ThePrint.
“Proper arrangements for education of the displaced students was also a major concern as these children are deprived of their right to education.”
The government, the MHRC has said, “should provide essential commodities (for their basic needs), mattresses, blankets, medicines, etc and study materials to the displaced children/students (as already directed by Hon’ble Supreme Court) in the relief camps of Churachandpur, if necessary, by way of air lifting”.
“Government of Manipur shall ensure that doctors visit the relief camps at least once a week,” the MHRC added.
In Kakching and Thoubal districts, the team said besides “healthcare requirements, the district administrations are also providing daily requirements, and some of the students are also sent to nearby schools”.
Justice Saha was also briefed by district officials of arson incidents in Kakching’s Serou and Sugnu areas in May, the letter said.
“Around 50 houses including 450 Meitei and 400 Kuki houses were burnt,” the letter said. The MHRC has instructed the district administration to “protect and safeguard the land and entire colony by putting up barricades or fences around the area so that the land owners may resettle again, when they return or when the Government makes arrangements for their resettlement.”
The government, it said, should “protect and safeguard” the “land and residences in the villages and colonies where the displaced persons from both communities used to reside in Imphal, Churachandpur and other places… so that the land owners may resettle again when they return, or when the government makes arrangements for their resettlement”.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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