Manipur CM asks officials to expedite construction of prefabricated houses for displaced

 IMPHAL: Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Friday visited Kwakta areas in Bishnupur district, where prefabricated houses would be constructed to provide temporary shelter to the people displaced by the ongoing ethnic violence.

After visiting the areas, Singh tweeted: "Inspected the site for construction of prefabricated houses at Kwakta, Bishnupur district, to address the housing needs for the people displaced by the unfortunate violence in the state. This site is one of the many temporary facilities being developed by the state government to accommodate people displaced by the violence in both the hills and the valley. In these difficult times, let us take all possible steps to bring peace to Manipur for good."

The Chief Minister has asked the officials to speed up the construction of the prefabricated temporary houses for the displaced people. Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi and several other leaders and senior officials accompanied the Chief Minister.

Singh had earlier said that 4,000 prefabricated temporary homes would be constructed within two months for the people displaced by the ethnic violence, which broke out on May 3 and has so far claimed 120 lives and injured around 400 people from different communities. "The collection of construction materials and the process to construct the temporary houses have already started to build the prefabricated temporary houses for the displaced people. After completion of the temporary houses, the inmates of the relief camps would be shifted there for a brief period before their permanent settlement at their original places," Singh had told the media.

In view of the ethnic strife in Manipur since May 3, approximately 50,650 men, women, and children displaced by the violence are sheltered in 350 camps. Over 13,000 displaced people from Manipur have so far also taken shelter in Mizoram, Nagaland, and Assam. An official statement said that the Manipur government has been running relief camps since May 3 for the displaced people in view of the prevailing law and order situation in various violence-affected districts. The semi-permanent relief camps for the affected people have been set up in line with the basic minimum requirements as per the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act's (NDMA) prescribed minimum standard in respect of shelter in relief camps.

Certain conditions were fulfilled while setting up a relief camp. These camps are preferably opened in existing government structures with basic minimum facilities, and the buildings are well protected and secured, preferably by security personnel and the Army, the statement said.

The building or site of these camps has easy access for fire tenders and has differently-abled-friendly facilities and special care arrangements for pregnant and lactating mothers, children, and elderly people. The district administrations have been arranging basic one-time facilities and consumables like mattresses, cooking utensils, water tanks, toilets, food items, drinking water, etc. for the inhabitants of the relief camps. For these camps, a three-level Relief Camp Management structure was set up to ensure effective functioning and monitoring of the camps in all the violence-affected districts.

The relief camps are supported by the district administration, which appointed one nodal officer for each camp who is responsible for providing support to the relief camp in close coordination with the available Civil Society organisations and local clubs, the statement added. (IANS)

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