ST demand gets louder with human chain
Source: The Sangai Express
Moirang, January 09 2023:
As a part of the mass movement for enlistment of Meitei/Meetei in the Scheduled Tribes category under the Constitution of India which is being spearheaded by the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee of Manipur (STDCM), a large number of people formed a human chain in front of Bishnupur Bazar temporary market today.
Speaking to media persons by the sideline of the protest demonstration, STDCM executive committee member and Bishnupur district branch secretary Loitongbam Devchand said they have been urging the State Government to send an ethnographic report and a socio-economic survey report of Meitei/Meetei to the Central Government after a memorandum was submitted to the Government of India way back in 2012 for granting ST status to the Meitei community.
He said that today's protest demonstration was another reminder to the State Government to send the requisite documents as asked by the Central Government back in 2013.Apart from staging protest demonstrations in the forms of sit-ins, human chains and street coiner meetings at different localities of the valley areas, memoranda have been submitted to 29 Ministers/MLAs.
Majority of the Ministers/MLAs have already pledged their support to the movement for enlistment of Meitei/Meetei in the ST category, he said.
The protesters who took part in today's protest shouted many slogans like "Grant ST status to Meitei/Meetei", "Government of Manipur must send necessary recommendation to the Government of India immediately", "Protect the living space of indigenous Meiteis" etc.
Many leaders and volunteers of STDCM and its Bishnupur district branch took part in the protest demonstration.