A delegation of 21 MPs of the opposition alliance INDIA arrived here on Saturday on a two-day visit to violence-hit Manipur to assess the ground reality. The team of MPs from opposition parties will visit several relief camps to meet the victims of the ethnic violence.The delegation reached Churachandpur in the afternoon to meet the victims of the Kuki community living in relief camps. Opposition leaders in the team criticised the Centre for not sending a delegation here to take stock of the situation and said “our visit is a way to provide some psychological relief to those in distress”.Congress Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi said, “We want the demands of the people to be heard. We have come to raise the voice of the people. “We have always maintained that if the Prime Minister wants to lead an all-party delegation, we would be happy to be a part of it. We want peace to prevail. Political parties from West Bengal, Jharkhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu should interact with the people and we want their concerns to be presented in Parliament.Besides Chowdhury and Gogoi, the delegation includes TMC’s Sushmita Dev, JMM’s Mahua Maji, DMK’s Kanimozhi, RLD’s Jayant Chowdhury, RJD’s Manoj Kumar Jha, RSP’s N K Premachandran, JD(U)’s Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh and Anil Prasad Hegde, CPI’s Sandosh Kumar and CPI(M)’s A A Rahim.The delegation will meet Governor Anasuiya Uikey at Raj Bhavan on Sunday morning and discuss the prevailing situation in Manipur and steps that can be taken to restore peace. The delegation is expected to return to Delhi by Sunday afternoon.
