Chennai: On the sidelines of laying the foundation stone for the construction of the Adichanallur Museum in the Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu, Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking about the Manipur ethnic violence said that the opposition members in Parliament were disrupting Parliament instead of finding a solution to the Manipur unrest. "But riots were not new to Manipur. It happened earlier also. The riots broke out in Manipur in 2013 also. At that time the riot-hit villagers were not getting relief material or even medicines," said the Union minister.
Speaking further, Sitharaman said, "The Union Home Minister did not visit Manipur during those days. Now Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Manipur and stayed there for three days and took stock of the situation. After assessing the situation in Manipur, the Home Minister is ready to resolve the issue and prepared to hold talks with various organisations in the state. But, the opposition members were adamant on Prime Minister should speak about the Manipur situation in Parliament. The political leaders from the opposition had gone there and saw the situation. But, the opposition members' sole purpose is to disrupt Parliament," he said.
On the construction of the museum, she said, "The Central government has allocated Rs 2,500 crore to set up museums at five places, including Adichanallur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been taking several steps to recover stolen idols smuggled to foreign countries. Whenever the Prime Minister goes abroad, he raises issues about smuggled precious idols with the leaders of the respective countries." Thoothukudi constituency MP Kanimozhi, Tamil Nadu Minister Anitha Radhakrishnan, and officials from the Department of Archeology were also present at the event.
