ATSUM ready for 'ROTO' agitation
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, May 22, 2013: "Intense agitation' for 38 hours under the code name ROTO (Reckoning of the Others) will begin from 5 am of June 3 and it would be followed by another 38 hours of 'sustained agitation' by All Tribal Students Union, Manipur (ATSUM) in protest against ignoring various demands put up by the students' body to the state government on tribal issues.

ATSUM President Muan Tombing, its General Secretary Vareiyo Shatsang and ATSUM Spokesman Majabung Gangmei announced this at its office here this afternoon.

By 'intense agitation', ATSUM means total bandh while by 'sustained agitation', the students' body has explained it as resorting to any action suddenly at any available opportunity and at any place to draw the attention of the Government.

The number '38 hours' denotes the number of tribes in Manipur.

ATSUM President Maun Tombing, its General Secretary Vareiyo Shatsang and ATSUM Spokesman Majabung Gangmei said that it has been one of the long standing aspiration of ATSUM to find a State Commission of Scheduled Tribes in Manipur under the Article 338A of the Indian Constitution which would usher in all round Development and progress in respect of tribal people in this eastern most part of the Indian Union.

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes which came in to force on 19th February, 2004 has failed to provide adequate service to the state of Manipur as it is based on the distant centre in Shillong.

According to the ATSUM leaders, the state of Karnataka in 2002 had established the State Commission for SC/ST under the name and style 'The Karnataka State Commission for Scheduled Tribes Act, 2002'.They said the tribal population is the second largest in the state of Manipur but the pace of development is rather too slow comparing to that of the non-tribal populace.

There has been the Manipur State Commission for OBC for safeguarding the rights of the other backward classes.

"In the light of the above facts and circumstances, it is our earnest plea that the Manipur State Commission for ST be set up in the earliest, the tribal students' body stated.

ATSUM then demanded for the setting up of B.Ed centres in hill districts of Manipur.

"Even the HSLC examination centres are very often treated as temporary arrangement subject to omission and commission.

It is demanded that B.Ed centres be set up in all the five hill districts where TET can be conducted," the tribal students' body demanded.

ATSUM also mentioned that the crisis in the newly set up Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU) Regional Compus in Manipur has been put to a situation of breaking down totally because all the required infrastructures and issues have not been properly attended to by the authorities concerned.

"There is no end to the students' agitations against many lapses in the University It is our earnest plea for necessary intervention before things turn from bad to worse," ATSUM cautioned.

ATSUM further said, "We demand adequate number of both teaching and non-teaching staff in the educational institutions in the hill areas of Manipur state.

We also demand that proper infrastructures for the educational institutions in the five hill districts be provided promptly as to facilitate smooth functioning of the academic sessions".

"The recruitment of junior Manipur Civil Service (MCS) rule latest amendment published in Manipur Gazette Extra Ordinary Dt.

06/03/2012 U/S 2(2) & (3) clearly states that there shall be 2 grades i.e.(I).

Junior MCS, Junior Grade (II) Senior MCS, Senior Grade.

The clauses 3 states that the post of Junior MCS, senior Grade shall be class I Gazetted while the post of Junior MCS, Junior Grade be Class II Gazetted.

We demand that justice be delivered at the time of conducting DPC in respect of SC & ST requiring promotion in accordance with the Manipur Reservation of vacancies in posts and Services (for ST&SC) Rules, 2011 published on 17/05/2011," the tribal students' leaders pointed out.

They also touched on the tribal rights and the issue of the natural resources and said, "Protection of the rights of the indigenous tribal people over the land, forest and management of natural resources in the hill areas of Manipur should be taken care of by the Government as to dispense of justice guaranteed by the law of the land.

It has been our firm stand to safeguard such rights and against unjust tapping of natural resources without prior information and consent of the indigenous land owners.

Any arbitrary extraction of natural, mineral resources and acquisition of lands cannot be tolerated any more longer.

The ATSUM shall be compelled to mobilize for all kinds of action programmes and agitation through the democratic means, should the Government stay in deferent to the genuine demand".

ATSUM then said it also protest against the deletion of additional/alternative English and imposition of Major Indian Language (MIL) in Meitei Mayek in class ten in the Board of School Education, Manipur (BOSEM) to be affective from 2014 to the 38 tribes by the government whose dialects are yet to be recognised in Manipur.

Muan and Vareiyo said the ATSUM also demands for the effective governance in the hill districts of Manipur.

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