The mandate of the peace committee — which was announced by home minister Amit Shah on June 1 in Imphal as part of several measures to end the strife in Manipur and restore peace and calm at the earliest — shall be to facilitate the process of establishment of peace among various ethnic groups of the state through dialogue and negotiations. “The committee should strengthen social cohesiveness, mutual understanding and facilitate cordial communication between various ethnic groups,” the home ministry said in a press release on Saturday.
While the Manipur governor will head the peace committee, it will have on board several members, including a few ministers in the state government as well as MPs, MLAs and leaders from different political parties in the state. The panel shall also include former civil servants, educationists, litterateurs, artists, social workers and representatives of different ethnic groups.
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Manipur violence: Centre forms 3-member probe panel headed by Justice Ajai Lamba
Since home minister Amit Shah visited Manipur between May 29 and June 1, several decisions taken by the Centre based on consultations held by him with different stakeholders have been implemented. These include constitution of a judicial panel to probe the violence, a CBI inquiry into six cases relating to the recent incidents and grant of a Rs 101.8-crore relief package for the displaced families. Also, combing operations are being undertaken in both hill and valley areas of the state to recover the weapons looted by the rebel groups.
In a related development, the three-member commission of inquiry on the violence headed by retired chief justice of Gauhati high court, Ajai Lamba, arrived in Imphal on Saturday. Lamba was accompanied by the other members — former bureaucrat Himanshu Sekhar Das and retired IPS officer Aloka Prabhakar.
The commission will submit its report to the Centre “as soon as possible but not later than six months for the date of its first sitting”. It has been tasked with finding the causes for spread of violence and riots targeting members of different communities since May 3 and the sequence of events leading to such violence.
The panel will find “whether there were any lapses or dereliction of duty on the part of any of the responsible authorities and individuals” and “the adequacy of the administrative measures taken to prevent and to deal with the said violence and riots”.