Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Saturday visited Maram Khullen village in Senapati district to a rousing welcome and attended a community outreach programme as chief guest.
During his maiden visit to the interior village, which is associated with the legendary love story of King Paikhomba and Maram chief’s daughter Engellei, Biren announced various development projects to be taken up at Maram area and Senapati district besides distributing benefits under various schemes of government departments.
To the huge numbers of Maram people present at the occasion, he also announced the opening of SDO’s office and police station at Maram, upgradation of Maram PHC to CHC and Maram Khullen PHSC to PHC. He also handed over a work order to the agency concerned for development of Sadim Pukhri and Hinga Shrine, associated with the love story of King Paikhomba and Engellei.
Speaking on the occasion, the CM said that the present state government runs within a system and every work programme is implemented after thorough discussion with concerned officials. As such, the government has been able to maintain a good relationship with the public. He also assured to provide connection of pipelines for providing tape water to the people of Maram Khullen.
Urging the people to refrain from any false information circulated by vested interest groups creating enmity among certain communities, he maintained that the state government has always been working for inclusive development and a white paper on fund flow to the hills districts had been brought out recently.
Around 45 per cent of the total state budget had been allocated to hill districts in the last two and half years, he added.
He also appealed to the youths of hill districts to apply for ‘Start Up’ scheme as only few had applied so far. He further maintained that infrastructures of certain sectors like road and transport, health, water supply and education among others had been improved significantly under the people oriented programmes taken up by the present government.
Stressing the need to develop hill districts in order to achieve overall development of the country, the CM stated that certain development programmes had been taken up under the Hill Areas Development Programme (HADP) of the Central government. He mentioned that Rs 90 crore had earlier been allocated to Tamenglong district in 2018 and the Centre had been asked for allocation of funds under HADP for remaining hill districts as well. He maintained that the state government, giving priority to poor and needy people since its formation, had introduced schemes for the welfare of the people such as Chief Minister-gi Hakshelgi Tengbang (CMHT), CM’s Health for All and School Fagathansi Mission among others.
Biren further informed that the Water Supply scheme constructed at Senapati district would be inaugurated very soon and once the water supply scheme is functional, almost 90 per cent population of the district would be provided with tap water. He also informed that around 16,698 households of the district had been electrified, 806 houses had been constructed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, 20,096 households had been provided connection with tape water supply under Har Ghar Jal Scheme, 33 roads had been constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and 45,803 persons had enrolled under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, out of which 3,587 persons had been given free treatment.
The CM also stated that the overall percentage of households with tap water supply in the state has now increased from 5 per cent to around 53 per cent now and the government aims to achieve 80 per cent coverage of households with tap water supply by the end of the year.
Regarding a proposal to construct a market at Maram, he assured to construct it under the Horticulture department very soon at the location provided by the locals which included black topping of the approach road to Maram Khullen.
Maintaining that the state government will always work under the ambit of the Indian Constitution, he informed that the government is discussing the Autonomous District Council (ADC) Bill with the Centre as certain parts contained in the bill is beyond the jurisdiction of the state government. He continued that the government would never go against the interest of its people and appealed not to insist the government in taking up steps on matters that could not be done by the state Assembly. He also informed that the government is considering providing more autonomy to ADC.
Appreciating the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi under whose supervision, more than 100 crore people of the country had been vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine, he stated that COVID Vaccination Express has been taken up to vaccinate all the eligible people. He urged all the people to get vaccinated at the earliest so as to prevent the likely infection of new variants.
During the programme, he also flagged off COVID Vaccination Express of Senapati district and laid foundation stone for Science Block of Don Bosco College, Maram. He also released the Maram Textbook for Class IX and X published by the Board of Secondary Education Manipur.
PHED Minister Losii Dikho; Education Minister Sorokhaibam Rajen; Agriculture Minister Oinam Lukhoi; Deputy Speaker Kongkham Robindro; Senapati ADC caretaker chairman A Kapani; chief secretary Rajesh Kumar; administrative secretaries and head of departments of the state government were also present in the programme.
