No tender for prefabricated houses of IDPs: Manipur Cong

Manipur Congress on Thursday demanded a thorough probe alleging irregularities in the construction of temporary shelters and distribution of reliefs to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Pressing Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Balla to initiate the probe, MPCC president K Meghachandra alleged that the prefabricated houses were being constructed without floating any prior tender.
He also alleged financial benefits and other relief items for IDPs sheltered in the relief camps did not reach them.
The allegations by the Congress chief came up after he visited two sites in Bishnupur district where the construction of the prefabricated houses is underway and some relief camps in the district on July 9.
On Thursday, the state Congress chief along with other leaders of the MPCC visited Imphal Raj Bhavan and submitted a letter detailing what he had witnessed during his site visit.
In the letter, the MPCC raised three key demands related to the rehabilitation of the IDPs including initiation of “a thorough probe or independent investigation into the loot of hundreds of crores of rupees in illegal construction of prefabricated houses for internally displaced persons without floating any prior tender and fake payments and buying of items which were not delivered in relief camps for internally displaced persons in different districts of Manipur.”
The Manipur government and the Centre must ensure a fixed timeline for all the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to be brought back to their original homes in their original districts of Manipur.
There shall be neither any intent nor any policy of either state government or Union government to further the deepening of the divides within the people of Manipur and the state of Manipur, the Congress demanded.
The government, both the state and the Union, must ensure the direct transfer of all the financial benefits meant for the internally displaced persons in their respective individual bank accounts, instead of transacting through middle persons or other representatives, the Congress further demanded.
“This executive decision needs to be urgently notified and efficiently implemented,” MPCC president K Meghachandra told the reporters while coming out of the Raj Bhavan after submitting the demands.
Meghachandra said that he had taken ground zero stock of the construction of the prefabricated houses for the IDPs at two sites in Bishnupur district.
“The constructions were not without proper official channels. We demand a thorough investigation on how prefabricated houses were being constructed without floating tenders,” he said.
The way the constructions were being done without work orders strongly indicated a possible looting of public money in terms of hundreds of crores of rupees, he added.
The MPCC chief further contended that the money released from the state exchequer for relief camps and other rehabilitation purposes since May 3, 2023, must be audited and any misuse thoroughly investigated.