Violence-hit Indian state faces medicine, food shortage

ANKARA (AA): Normalcy is gradually returning to India’s violence-hit northeastern state of Manipur amid a shortage of medicine and daily-use items, according to local politicians.

At least 70 people have been killed and 231 others have been injured in the ethnic violence since May 3. Thousands have been displaced with 1,700 houses burned, according to authorities.

Keisham Meghachandra, who heads the country’s main opposition Congress party in the state, disclosed that the situation remained tense, but no new clashes had been reported.

“People are facing a shortage of medicines, day-to-day food items and even fuel,” he said, adding that the situation in the main townships was limping back to normalcy, but in the peripheries, things were tense.

Violence broke out in the state early this month following a court ruling that directed the state government to submit recommendations for the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe category, which enraged the state’s tribal population. The Meitei people are the predominant ethnic group of Manipur and are mostly Hindu.

The Naga and Kuki tribespeople in the state are concerned that if the Maitei community is granted Scheduled Tribe status, their own representation in government jobs and land ownership will shrink.

Nagas and Kukis are mostly Christians.

Legislators from the Kuki community in Manipur last week demanded a separate administration for the community. In a statement, the legislators said living among the Meiteis after the recent violence, “is as good as death for our people.”

Churches attacked

In the recent ethnic violence, several churches have been damaged.

Ginkhosiem Singson, executive secretary of the Northeast-based Evangelical Churches Association, said that dozens of churches had been damaged in the recent violence.

“Since there are restrictions in place, there is not much information available regarding the extent of damage,” he said, adding that people are now facing a shortage of food items and even clothes.

Lt. Col. Amit Shukla, a defense spokesman based in the northeast, said that the situation is returning to normalcy at a “rapid pace.”

“Things are under control. However, the deployment of armed and paramilitary forces will continue and the surveillance of both air and ground is continuously happening,” he said.

He said for the last few days, there have been no reports of any fresh violence and a small number of people are living in the fortified camps.

​​​​​​​”The deployment will continue for now in the areas (affected by violence),” said Shukla.