A delegation of 20 MPs from the newly formed alliance 'INDIA' bloc will visit violence-hit Manipur on July 29-30 to assess the ground situation first-hand and then make recommendations to the government and Parliament for a solution to the problems in the violence-hit state, opposition leaders said on Friday.
The delegation is likely to include Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Gaurav Gogoi of the Congress, TMC's Sushmita Dev, JMM's Mahua Maji, DMK's Kanimozhi, NCP's Vandana Chavan, Jayant Chaudhary of RLD, Manoj Kumar Jha of RJD, N K Premachandran of RSP and T Thirumavalavan of the VCK.
JD(U) chief Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh, Aneel Prasad Hegde (JD-U), CPI's Sandosh Kumar, CPI(M)'s A A Rahim, Samajwadi Party's Javed Ali Khan, IUML's E T Mohammed Basheer, AAP's Sushil Gupta, Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-Uddhav Thackeray), D Ravikumar (DMK) and Phulo Devi Netam (Congress) will also be part of the delegation.
What is on the agenda?
"We are going with a message that we are standing with them & we will do everything in our capacity to restore peace in the area. The day after tomorrow at 10 am MPs from the INDIA alliance will also meet the Governor...," Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain said.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader T R Baalu said the opposition delegation will be leaving for Manipur Saturday morning and will find out what went wrong, the extent of damage and loss of lives and property. The parties will then make recommendations to the government and Parliament for a solution to the problems in the violence-hit state
Ahead of the visit, Congress' deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi called for an inquiry under a retired Supreme Court judge into the violence in Manipur. "The BJP wants to give the picture that everything is fine in Manipur but it is not so with violence continuing. That is why we want that an inquiry should be conducted under a retired Supreme Court judge as to how did the state government fail, how did people got access to weapons in this quantity, what was the administration doing," he said.
The opposition bloc had been demanding that a delegation of their leaders be allowed to visit the state but till now they had been denied permission in view of the situation there, PTI reported.
