Imphal: The authorities in violence-hit Jiribam district in Manipur have set up a temporary school and began classes for the school-going children presently staying at various relief camps in and around the district headquarters, 220 km west of Imphal, officials said.
“The temporary school was set up under the initiative of the Zonal Education Office Jiribam from June 14 onwards, and the classes were started from June 15,” said Kh Basanta Singh, a primary school teacher posted in Jiribam district.
“We conducted classes in two groups-Class (I-IV) group and Class (V-VIII)group. The classes for the first group started from 9-11am while for the second group from 3-4pm),” he said.
Currently, there are 88 students, including 40 girls, and they are looked after by one nodal officer and 23 teachers.
“Textbooks and notebooks to the students have already been provided,” said a district official. The officials said that similar temporary schools would be set up nearby the relief camps as and when necessary, and this will continue until the situation becomes normal.
As of June 12, 943 internally displaced people, including 200 children, were taking shelter at seven relief camps in Jiribam in view of the fresh violence in the district after a 59-year-old man was killed on June 6.
The maximum number (251) of internally displaced people (IDPs) are taking shelter at the Multipurpose Sports Complex (Indoor hall) at Bidyanagar, while the least number (52) of IDPs are taking shelter at Multipurpose Sports Complex (Manipur Western Gate Labour Welfare Union).
Jiribam, which is home to different communities and is located along the Manipur-Assam border, has so far remained unaffected by the ethnic strife that has been raging in Manipur since May last year.
In the recent spate of violence, earlier this week, a school building at T Motha near Moreh was set ablaze by unknown assailants, while abandoned houses and shops were set on fire in Kalinagar in Jiribam.
Manipur has been witnessing ethnic crisis between the two communities- Kukis and Meiteis since last year, which has so far claimed more than 200 lives and displaced more than 50,000 people. Most of the displaced people are still staying in the relief camps.
In another development, the Jiribam district administration, in its continuous efforts to provide relief materials and essential items to the displaced people in relief camps, distributed grocery items, LPG cylinders and other daily needs to the inmates at the relief camps, officials said on Sunday.
Officials added that the district public health engineering department is providing drinking water to the relief camps regularly while routine health check-ups of every individual in the relief camps are done every day by the doctors and medical staff of the Community Health Centre, besides providing sanitary kits to the relief camps giving more focus on the health and hygiene of the inmates, officials added.