Don't put the cart before the horse Dignified return first, then housing : IDPs

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Feb 3: The Joint Committee, representing internally displaced persons of Meitei community across multiple districts, has urged the Government to ensure safe, permanent and dignified return to their original villages before providing houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
Resettlement must be a prerequisite for housing assistance, said the committee in a statement.
Providing houses under PMAY-G before guaranteeing safe, permanent, and dignified return is akin to putting the cart before the horse and it will not address the core issue of displacement and insecurity, said the Joint Committee.
Any permanent housing under the PMAY-G scheme can only be considered after the complete and secure resettlement of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their original villages, it said.
In addition, the Government's contradictory stance on the resettlement and reconstruction of houses has hindered dignified return of the IDPs, it said.
The Joint Committee said, "While an advance amount has been paid to IDPs from villages like Dolaithabi and others in the valley's periphery areas for construction of houses, the same Government is not allowing these very IDPs to return and resettle in their original villages."
This policy paralysis prevents any possibility of rebuilding homes, rendering the advance payment and the promise of PMAY-G meaningless to the IDPs, it added.
Under the current circumstances, the IDPs are unwilling to avail the scheme, it said.
Given the above-mentioned realities--the lack of secure resettlement and the explicit prohibition to the IDPs' return to their lands, it is not the right time to implement the PMAY-G scheme for the displaced persons, said the Joint Committee.
"Therefore, the IDPs we represent are not willing to accept or proceed with the PMAY-G scheme under the present conditions. Our immediate demand is the facilitation of safe return and resettlement. Housing construction is a subsequent phase that can only follow the restoration of our right to return," said the committee.
"We urge the State and Central Governments to understand the logical sequence of rehabilitation." First, ensure safe and official resettlement. Then, facilitate the rebuilding of homes. Any attempt to bypass these fundamental steps of return and resettlement will be seen as an incomplete and unacceptable solution to the humanitarian crisis, said the Joint Committee.
"We seek a serious and urgent dialogue with the concerned authorities to chart a clear, feasible, and dignified path forward for the thousands of IDPs awaiting justice and the restoration of their normal lives," added the Joint Committee.
The Joint Committee of the IDPs is a conglomerate of Churachandpur Meitei United Committee; Meitei Council Moreh; Committee on Protection of Meitei Victims; Meitei Union Kangpokpi District; Apex Committee of Victim Villages of Ekou, Sadu Yengkhuman, Dolaithabi, Leitanpokpi, Mairenpat; and Torbung Gram Panchayat Victim Committee.