Over 14,000 schoolchildren displaced due to violence in Manipur: Edu Ministry

Over 14,000 schoolchildren have been displaced due to the ethnic violence in Manipur, the Ministry of Education said on Wednesday.

Over 93 per cent of these children have been admitted to the nearest school, Union Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

“A total of 14,763 school-going children have been displaced due to the current Manipur situation. A nodal officer has been appointed for each relief camp to facilitate the admission process of the displaced students,” she said.

As many as “93.5 per cent of the displaced students have been admitted to a nearest feasible school, free of cost”, the minister said.

More than 160 people have been killed and hundreds injured since ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meanwhile, two abandoned houses were set on fire by unidentified people in Manipur’s Imphal West district in the early hours of Wednesday.

Fire tenders were rushed to the spot in the Langol area and the blaze was doused, an official said, adding that no injuries were reported in the incident.

Meanwhile, the Manipur government has extended the curfew relaxation period by one hour in Imphal East and West districts in view of improvement in the law and order situation.

The curfew relaxation period in the twin Imphal districts was now from 5 am to 8 pm.