Imphal: A little twist from the ongoing ethnic crisis, an annoyed Manipur chief minister, Nongthombam Biren Singh on Tuesday flayed a man and even announced monetary reward leading to his arrest for uploading a misleading ‘rumour’ on the social media.
The unknown man, in his post, loaded a video of a motorcade of heavy vehicles carrying huge machines ostensibly in Imphal, and said the mammoth devices carried by 20/30 trucks are probably meant for mining platinum and uranium.
Biren, in a video message attached with the video of the man uploaded in his (CM) Facebook page, said the machines are meant for cleaning and dredging Phumdis (floating biomasses) from the dying Lamphelpat (Lamphel lake) located in the peripheries of Imphal West district.
Owing to the lake’s fading status, there have been repeated flash floods during rains, affecting the people hugely, added Biren.
For the last four/five years the government has been extending all out efforts to save Lamphelpat and to prevent it from triggering sudden floods, Biren said. The CM further added that a work order for cleaning the lake has been released only recently. Towards this end, the machines have come, he continued.
“Spreading such misleading information on social media posts has confused and made the people restless and this might also lead the public to set ablaze the newly arrived expensive machines,” Biren stated.
“There are some people who spread misleading rumours in the state. Let us be careful of such men. Manipur will suffer if we don’t punish such people in time,” rued the CM.
Appealing to the people to help round him up and hand over to the police, the CM said that “reward will be given for information leading to his arrest.”
