The Central Railway has sent six waggons packed with onions from Manmad in the Nashik region of Maharashtra to Manipur, according to a CR official on Tuesday.
As a result of the current law and order crisis in Manipur leading to a shortage of necessary supplies, officials said on Monday that the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) delivered the first goods trains carrying essential commodities to the violence-hit north-eastern state on Sunday.
In the Manipur district of Tamenglong on Monday, the first goods train from Guwahati arrived at Khongsang Railway Station.
According to Dr Shivraj Manaspure, the Central Railway’s chief public relations officer, onions were loaded into 22 waggons at Ankai Goods Shed, close to Manmad Station in Nashik, for transport to Changsari Station, close to Guwahati in Assam, where six waggons were then sent to Khongsang Station in Manipur.
“A total of six waggons arrived at Khongsang station on Monday,” he said.
The waggons from Ankai to Khongsang had been reserved, the official claimed.
He said that on Monday night, the train hauling the onions moved 2,801 kilometres from the Ankai goods yard to Khongsang.
The North Frontier Railway separated the six waggons carrying onions after the 22 waggons arrived at Changsari station and attached them to another goods train that was delivering various necessities, including potatoes, sugar, and other fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), to Manipur. This is according to a railway official who spoke to PTI.
More than 160 people have been killed and other people have been hurt since ethnic clashes in Manipur began on May 3 as a result of a “Tribal Solidarity March” organised in the hill regions to oppose the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) recognition.
The Imphal Valley is home to the bulk of Meiteis, who make up about 53% of Manipur’s population. The tribes of the Naga and Kuki, who reside in the hill districts, make up an additional 40% of the population.