CPI (M) Delegation Visiting Manipur Meets Governor Anusuiya Uikey, Discusses Issues Of Displaced People

A Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) delegation visiting Manipur on Friday met Governor Anusuiya Uikey and discussed the situation of the displaced people.

A four-member CPI (M) delegation headed by General Secretary Sitaram Yechury is on a visit of strife-torn Manipur. On Friday, the delegation visited the relief camps set up for the displaced people. 

Manipur has been in the grips of ethnic violence since May 3 when clashes erupted between the state's Meitei and tribal communities. Over 150 people have been killed and around 60,000 have been displaced. Houses, places of worship, government buildings, and political establishments have been attacked and a deep mistrust has come up between the two communities. 

After meeting Uikey, Yechury tweeted, "The CPI (M) delegation called upon the Honourable Governor of Manipur Smt. Anusuiya Uikey and had an hourlong discussion.Requested her intervention in ensuring that the appalling conditions in the relief camps are improved."

Yechury informed Uikey that the CPI(M) team on Friday visited relief camps in Churachandpur and Moirang, where they found that the "arrangements made by the state government or local bodies in maintaining and running the relief camps were not satisfactory", PTI quoted the statement issued by the governor's secretariat as saying, adding that Yechury said that "IDPs [internally displaced persons], especially children and lactating mothers, are deprived of nutritious food and babies are being born in the camps".

"Under such a situation, how long can the IDPs survive with hope?" he asked.

Yechury said that only a political solution can bring peace to the ongoing crisis, while also raising concern over the looting of firearms from various police stations, reported PTI, adding that Uikey informed the delegation that political parties cutting across party lines need to cooperate with the government in bringing an amicable solution to the ongoing conflict.

"Violence will not bring any solution," Uikey remarked, adding that appeals have been made to both the two communities to shun violence and come forward for talks, reported PTI.

The governor informed the CPI(M) team that she has personally met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other central leaders and urged them to find ways to bring an end to the conflict at the earliest possible time, reported PTI.

Sharing photos from their visit to the relief camps at Moirang and Churachandpur, Yechury slammed the "complicit callousness" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments at Centre and in state.

Before leaving for Manipur, Yechury had demanded the sacking of Chief Minister N Biren Singh. 

Earlier, 10 Opposition parties, including CPI (M), wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that BJP's policies responsible for the Manipur crises. They blamed the "politics of divide and rule in Manipur" of the BJP and called CM Singh the "architect" of the crises