IMPHAL: The Manipur government will start handing over prefabricated temporary houses to violence-affected displaced people from Wednesday onward, officials said on Tuesday. Khumanthem Diana Devi, Deputy Commissioner of Imphal East District, said in an order that the temporary shelter homes for the displaced families constructed at Sajiwa Jail Complex by Manipur Police Housing Corporation Ltd. would be handed over to the displaced families of Imphal East district on Wednesday by Chief Minister N. Biren Singh. The Manipur Chief Minister earlier announced that around 4,000 prefabricated temporary homes would be constructed in different districts for the people displaced by the ethnic violence, which broke out on May 3.
The prefabricated temporary homes are now being constructed in a war-footing manner in different districts, and within the next month, work on the construction of all temporary homes will be completed. Around 50,650 men, women, and children of different communities were displaced by the violence and are now sheltered in 350 camps set up in schools, government buildings, and auditoriums. Over 12,000 people belonging to the Kuki-Zo-Zomi-Chin community have taken shelter in neighbouring Mizoram.
At least 160 people have been killed and over 6,000 injured since ethnic violence between the non-tribal Meitei and tribal Koki-Zo communities broke out in the state on May 3, when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. (IANS)
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