IMPHAL, Dec 25: Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Wednesday said the state, which has been in the grip of ethnic violence since May last year, needs immediate peace and appealed to two communities to reach an understanding.
Speaking at the Good Governance Day programme at the state BJP headquarters here, Singh asserted that the saffron party can save the northeastern state as it believes in the idea of living together.
“What is happening in Manipur today has many reasons. Today, those who have been trying to divide the state are asking what the government is doing…they are hungry for power,” Singh said.
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The chief minister said several initiatives such as ‘Meeyamgi Numit’ (People’s Day), which aims at bringing the people and officials closer, have been rolled out.
“We are not against any particular community. The stand of the BJP is clear. We believe in the idea of living together. We have already started to build relations between the police and the people,” he said.
Singh said the state government is working hard to meet the requirements of internally displaced people by making committees at several layers of the administration.
He also claimed that the administration is providing immediate solutions to the displaced people in education and agriculture.
“We have never committed any wrong. We only wanted to save future generations. The two communities need to be calm. Instead of looking at the past, we need to focus on the upcoming NRC process, capturing biometrics and 1961 as the base year of the Inner Line Permit.
“We will continue our work democratically and constitutionally. This will take time. What we need now is immediate peace and reach an understanding between the two communities which have misunderstood each other,” Singh said.
More than 250 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups in Manipur since May last year.
“Only BJP can save Manipur…BJP leaders have a high sense of nationalism and social justice. They do reality-based politics in the interests of the nation….if I am not given a ticket by the BJP, I will remain with the party,” Singh added.
He also mentioned a few unity-themed projects of the BJP government, and said, “The Unity Mall will include stalls of all the ethnics of the state and will be built at the cost of more than Rs 140 crores”. (PTI)
