Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, July 02 2009:
All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) will fight for their rights and the government will be responsible for any consequences that follows if the rules for the Manipur Reservation of Vacancies in Post and Service (for SC and ST) Act 2007 are not framed and passed during the assembly session starting from tomorrow, stated in a press communiqu� issued today by president, ATSUM, Thomas Taishya.
It stated that the issue of reservation for SC/ST has been hotly debating and a contentious issue since the birth of the state in 1972.ATSUM believes that tribals are not adequately represented in all government and semi-government establishments, and pointing out that a mere 25% of the total state government employees are tribals, demanded for immediate address of the issue.
ATSUM said to make matters worse, reservation for STs in central institutions located in Manipur, such as Manipur University, Central Agricultural University, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, etc is very pathetic and meager as the concern authorities have the excuse of following the central reservation norm of giving a mere 7.5% to tribals.
It further stated that 'a community' that constitutes 56% of the total population has grabbed all the jobs in the state before and will be doing so in the future.