Imphal: Works are in full progress for the construction of over 3000 semi-permanent prefabricated houses in Manipur for the people internally displaced in the violence which boiled the state for almost three months. Thousands of families are taking shelter in several relief camps in the state. Several thousands of people have been taking shelter in those temporary relief camps for over three months now. With assistance from the central government, the Manipur government has been constructing over 3000 prefabricated houses for these people who have lost their houses in the unrest.
Manipur police housing development corporation is constructing those semi-permanent houses for the affected people.
Senior officials of the home department said that the construction began from June 26 onwards in five different places in Manipur. Two hundred houses being built near Sajiwa Jail in Imphal East district are nearing completion. The official said that the semi-permanent prefabricated houses will have two rooms and a toilet, and there will be common kitchens, while ten houses will form a row. The construction of these 200 houses in the Imphal East district is on a war footing, and the deadline for its completion is August 20. High-quality materials have been used to construct these houses, keeping in mind the comfort of the inmates.
Walls are constructed with Puff panels, powder-coated aluminium frame for windows and pre-painted CI sheets for roofs, the home department official said.
Prefabricated houses for at least 400 families are being built in the Yaithibi Loukol area in the Thoubal district and another 120 at Kwakta in the Bishnupur district. Similar homes are also being built at Sekmai in Imphal West district and Sawombung in Imphal East.
Meanwhile, Manipur CM N Biren Singh on August 15 said that Certain misunderstandings and some actions of vested interests and foreign plots to destabilise the country have led to the loss of precious lives and properties, and many are living in relief camps in the state now. The government is working consistently to bring back normalcy, and the affected people will be resettled soon. Those who cannot be shifted to the original places immediately will be shifted temporarily to prefabricated houses which are under construction.
Notably, over 160 people lost their lives, and several hundred were injured since the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3 during a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ organised by tribal students union in the hill districts to protest the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Over 60000 people were internally displaced in the unrest. Thousands of people from Manipur fled to neighbouring states and are taking shelter in relief camps in Mizoram and Assam.
