Four residents of Kumbi Terakhong village in Bishnupur district of restive Manipur went missing on Wednesday after reportedly venturing out to the hills to collect firewood. They were identified as Thoudam Ingocha (57), Ahanthem Dara (53), Oinam Romen (45) and T. Ananda (27). Officials could not be contacted for confirmation but locals said three bodies were recovered on Thursday. A gunfight was reported between unidentified groups on Wednesday in the area where the bodies were located.
Security forces recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition during search operations conducted in the fringe and vulnerable areas of the Imphal West, Kakching, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Imphal East and Churachandpur districts on Wednesday.
Manipur has been restive since May 3 when ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis erupted after a tribal solidarity march on the issue of granting Scheduled Tribe status to the Meiteis. The violence claimed the lives of some 200 people and displaced 60,000 others so far.
Black fluid blankets rivulet
Meanwhile, the Manipur government on Thursday sounded an alert after a gooey black fluid blanketed a rivulet on Wednesday night. It said a First Information Report (FIR) had been registered over the incident and that an expert team had been formed to look into the cause of and circumstances surrounding the incident.
Residents in the Imphal Valley discovered the viscous fluid, found to be combustible.
“Leakage of heavy fuel from the Leimakhong power station has been reported, leading to spillover of the discharge along streams passing through Kantosabal, Sekmai, etc. The stream meets the Imphal river downstream by flowing through Khurkhul-Loitang-Kameng-Iroisemba-Nambul,” the office of Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh said in a statement.
But even before the statement from the government came, several social media accounts claiming to represent the interests of the Meitei community had started accusing members of the Kuki-Zo community for the contamination.
Security at plant
On Thursday, the Manipur government’s Home department directed the Director General of Police to deploy adequate security forces at the power plant and in and around it, further directing to register an FIR over the incident and seal nearby areas.
In a separate notification, the Home department notified that a three-member expert investigation team had been formed by the order of the Governor — headed by Ashutosh Kumar Sinha (IPS). Other members of the committee include the Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the State’s Power department and an Additional Secretary of the Home department.
Further, the government said in a statement on Thursday that the Department of Public Health Engineering (PHE) is working in close coordination with technical teams from IIT Guwahati, Manipur University, NIT Manipur to assess any contamination to the water from the streams.
It added, “Preliminary reports of the PHED have indicated that there is no damage to the potable water supply system, and the water quality is safe. Additional water samples are being collected for detailed assessment by IIT Guwahati. An expert team of IIT Guwahati is also visiting Imphal.”
Meanwhile, the government said it had diversified potable water supply for residents as an interim measure, adding that the water supply schemes near the streams have been closed temporarily and will reopen once the test results are confirmed.
Potable water
It also said that a committee was being constituted by the PHED with members from departments of Agriculture, Environment and Climate Change, Water Resources, Power, Veterinary and Animal Husbandry and Fisheries in order to monitor and ensure that potable water is available for consumption and domestic use of the public.
Leimakhong, housing the Army’s divisional headquarters, is a small town in the Kuki-majority Kangpokpi district. The State’s capital, Imphal is about 30 km downhill. The power station there is believed to have been idle for the past few months.
The State government requested all concerned to take immediate necessary action, making use of all available resources in terms of machinery, manpower and expertise to prevent an environmental calamity.
“Response mechanism/SoP for such events may be immediately activated,” the statement from the CMO said.
Locals said they have stopped using the water of the rivulet, otherwise their lifeline, since the black fluid was found flowing on it.
