STDCM's shutdown comes into force
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 27 2021:
As their ultimatum served on the State Government to send a recommendation for enlistment of Meitei/Meetei in Scheduled Tribe category went unheeded, the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee Manipur (STDCM) has decided to go ahead with its proposed 18-hours State-wide shutdown from midnight today till 6 pm tomorrow.
Speaking to media persons at Ima Khunthokhanbi Shanglen (DM College campus) today, STDCM convenor Laishram Romesh Meetei announced a series of agitation which would follow the 18 hours shutdown.
Romesh said that protest demonstrations would be staged and slogans shouted for half an hour from 12.30 pm to 1 pm on December 29 at different locations.
Slogans like "All communities must live together in peace and harmony", "State Government should send necessary recommendation for inclusion of Meitei/Meetei in ST list urgently" would be raised during the protest demonstration, he said.
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Shouting the second slogan, STDCM members would march to the Chief Minister's bungalow on December 30, Romesh said.
STDCM has been clamouring for enlistment of Meitei/Meetei community in ST category since 2012 .
In 2013, the then UPA Government asked the State Government to send a recommendation for categorisation of Meitei/Meetei as ST.
The incumbent NDA Government led by BJP too has asked the State Government to send a recommendation, he said.
In spite of different types of agitation and numerous memoranda and reminders, there was no positive response from the State Government.
Subsequently, a public meeting was held on December 16 where several resolutions were adopted.
The meeting resolved to launch different modes of agitation including total shutdown if the Government fails to send necessary recommendation to the Centre by 3 pm of December 27, said the STDCM convenor.
"We know people have been suffering from the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic but the STDCM decided to go ahead with the proposed shutdown as the issue is a question of survival or death of Meitei/Meetei community", he said.
The campaign for inclusion of Meitei/Meetei community in ST list is driven by a conviction that all the communities living together in the State should enjoy equal status and Meitei/Meetei community should be protected with a Constitutional safeguard like other indigenous communities of the State, he asserted.
Essential services, medical service, electricity, fire service, religious activities and media would be exempted from the purview of the shutdown, said the STDCM convenor.
Even though the State Government, on several occasions, accepted that the demand for inclusion of Meitei/Meetei in ST list is legitimate, it is trying to step aside the same demand, he decried.
Even if there are some sections of people who do not support the demand for inclusion of Meitei/Meetei in ST list, the Government has not yet bothered to convene a joint meeting, Romesh said.
He also appealed to all the people to support the shutdown as well as the series of agitation which would follow the shutdown.
Meanwhile, the Educated Unemployed Tata Magic Van Owners and Drivers Welfare Association, Oinam and the Social Voluntary Organisations, Changangei have pledged support to the shutdown.