Supreme Court asks Manipur panel to verify house restoration complaints

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The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Manipur High-Powered Committee on relief and rehabilitation to verify complaints that many families displaced by ethnic violence have not received rebuilt houses. A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant heard senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Kuki organisations, who said that despite a court order noting the destruction of 144 tribal villages and 607 Kuki houses, not one destroyed house had been reconstructed in three years.

The committee's lawyer, Vibha Makhija, countered that it had written to the state government on receiving a recent representation. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said the centre had approved about 12,000 houses under a PM housing scheme and built around 3,000 temporary shelters. The court recorded the dispute and directed the committee to file a status report on benefits actually provided. It also asked the panel to examine complaints about houses allegedly demolished and occupied by encroachers in Imphal, and to look at six churches needing immediate fencing to prevent encroachment.