Evacuation from Manipur ends; 242 return home

SHILLONG, May 9: Cabinet Minister and MDA 2.0 spokesperson Ampareen Lyngdoh on Tuesday said 242 citizens of the state have been evacuated from strife-torn Manipur in a period of six days, marking the end of the process.
The list of evacuees includes students from the Central Agriculture University, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) and Manipur University, members of the Lajong SC junior team and family members of some students.
Lyngdoh said the Indian Army played a major role in making the evacuation process a success as some of the students were stranded in violence-torn areas.
“We engaged actively with the army and paramilitary forces and we are grateful they came forward to assist our students who were under duress,” she said.
“We are so grateful to the Assam Rifles and other paramilitary forces who went out of their way to fetch our students and citizens from wherever they were. We worked round the clock for about 72 hours,” said Lyngdoh.
She also made it clear that it was a voluntary evacuation process and an option was given to citizens who called the helpline.
On the measures initiated by the state, she said, “We did get a special flight from the Centre on May 5 where 67 students were evacuated on the first day. Next we collaborated with commercial airlines and made sure the airlines booked the tickets on behalf of the students since they had no internet.”
Informing that the average cost per ticket for an individual flyer was anything between Rs 5,000 and 8,000, she said the government will be evaluating the total expenditure incurred in the evacuation process.
Listing down the challenges encountered during the evacuation, Lyngdoh said communication was a major challenge. Besides, coordination with the various other security agencies on the ground was an arduous task, she added.