Manipur landslide: Two more bodies recovered

Our Correspondent

Imphal, July 24(EMN): Two more bodies suspected to be of two missing persons were recovered from the landslide site in Manipur’s Noney district on July 23, locals said. Three others are still missing.

The recovery of the two bodies believed to be of 28-year-old Chunthuiliu and her two-and-half-year-old daughter who went missing along with her husband Kabamgai after the massive landslide of June 29, was made by the locals with the help of Railways authority.

It may be mentioned that the landslide, said to be the first of such magnitude in the state’s history, hit the railway construction camp at the hilly Marangching village(part 5)areas on the midnight of June 29. It also hit 107 Territorial Army camps of the Indian army deployed in the area to protect the construction site.

However the search operations at the landslide site have been officially called off following a high-profile meeting and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on July 20 with the recovery of 56 bodies out of the 79 confirmed victims while 18 injured were rescued.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had even informed that individual efforts to retrieve the missing properties, machineries, etc could still be carried on by any organisation or agency, assuring that the authorities will also look into the public grievances.

It may be recalled that the state government had announced ex-gratia of INR 5 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased and INR 50,000 for the injured ones.

In the recently concluded search and rescue operations, more than 500 personnel across multiple centre and state departments besides machinery have been involved at the landslide site since July 1. Meanwhile the village authority, youths and students bodies of Makhuam(Marangching) village extended appreciation and gratitude to one and all who were involved in extending their services and taking up search and rescue operation efforts.