ATSUM calls for electing ADC Bill proponents
Source: Chronicle News Service
Kangpokpi, February 20 2022:
With barely seven days for the first phase polling, All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) has appealed to the tribals to vote for only those representatives who would pursue the new Hill Areas Committee ADC Bill 2021 and translate it into Act.
In a press communique signed jointly by its president Paotinthang Lupheng and general secretary SR Andria, ATSUM stated that as a vanguard for the defence of rights and interest of 1.3 million tribal populace, it felt it pertinent to issue a clarion call to all the tribal electors to stand firmly in unity for the collective future in the upcoming Assembly election.
"Since independence, the tri-bals in our state have lived as a neglected population despite the guarantees in the Indian constitution through Article 371C.We appreciate the Hill Areas Committee (HAC) for their historic unison across party lines and ethnic divides to unanimously adopt the Manipur Hill Area Autonomous District Councils Bill 2021 on 16th of August, 2021," it said.
"ATSUM with the unrelenting support of Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) and All Naga Students' Association Manipur (ANSAM) have been impressing on the present BJP-led Government to table the Bill and take it forward.
However, we are extremely disappointed at the response and -position of the state government which continues to deliberately deny our advancement as equal citizens of this state," the union lamented.
"Our only hope of translating our collective ideals is by electing representatives who would embark this collective demand to translate the new HAC ADC Bill 2021 into a reality," ATSUM said as it urged "all the tribal candidates across the political spectrum to give a primary commitment to the new HAC ADC Bill 2021, keeping aside your respective party manifestoes and policies".
Anything else is an appeasement which cannot usher in a collective transformation for the whole tribals, it further said and asked all the candidates to explicitly voice their positions on the new HAC ADC Bill 2021.While appealing to all the right thinking electors/voters of the hill areas to elect only such representatives whose vision, competence and integrity will be able to pick up the course of the new HAC ADC Bill 2021 and translate it into an Act, ATSUM urged "all the tribals to continue to stand firm unison at such a decisive juncture and collectively voice this sole demand and cast our sacrosanct vote for only such futuristic leaders who commits for tribal rights" .