The Manipur Cabinet has approved one-time financial assistance of ₹10 lakh each for the next of kin of 49 people who have remained missing since the outbreak of ethnic violence in the state on May 3, 2023. The decision was taken during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh on October 1, 2026.
Manipur government spokesperson and MLA Sapam Ranjan Singh said the Cabinet approved the Home Department’s proposal as a special humanitarian measure to support families who have continued to face uncertainty and hardship because their relatives remain untraced.
According to the government, sustained efforts have been made to trace the 49 missing persons, but their whereabouts remain unknown. The financial assistance is intended to address the difficulties faced by their families, particularly because they cannot easily access compensation available to families of officially declared victims.
Existing legal procedures create an additional challenge for families of missing persons. Under the law, a person who has gone missing is generally presumed dead only after seven years. Families also lack documents such as death certificates and postmortem reports, which are required under applicable central assistance provisions.
Sapam Ranjan Singh said the Cabinet considered the hardships faced by these families to be comparable to those experienced by families who lost relatives during the conflict. On this basis, the government decided to provide the same ₹10 lakh assistance as a special humanitarian measure.
The Cabinet also approved an increase in ex-gratia assistance for Army and Central Armed Police Forces personnel killed or injured while conducting operations related to extremist violence in Manipur. The earlier rates, fixed in 2006, were ₹2 lakh for death and ₹10,000 for injury. Under the revised structure, assistance will be ₹10 lakh for death, ₹2 lakh for permanent disability, ₹1 lakh for grievous injury and ₹20,000 for simple injury.
In other decisions, the Cabinet increased the monthly pension for retired journalists from ₹8,000 to ₹10,000 and family pension from ₹5,000 to ₹7,000. It also approved the constitution of the Fifth Manipur State Finance Commission for the 2026–27 to 2030–31 period.