Tribal students laud State Govt
Source: The Sangai Express / NNN
Imphal, February 18 2013 :
Tangkhul Katamnao Saklong (TKS), Churachandpur District Students' Union (CDSU) and Zeliangrong Students' Union Manipur (ZSUM) have lauded the State Government for responding positively to the demand made by the All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) during the talks which was held on February 16 .
"The issues put forth by the ATSUM to the Government were genuine and we believe that the State Government will seriously look into the matter.
We appeal to take up the necessary step to solve the problem at earliest possible," CDSU, ZSUM and TKS said.
Meanwhile, the three district apex students' organizations said they are very much with the ATSUM and will continue to extend their fullest support on any issue taken up by the ATSUM in connection with tribal cause and will continue to work to strengthen ATSUM in all possible means.
"We appreciate the ATSUM executive council working heart and soul in addressing the grievances and handling the tribal core issues thus far and we appeal to all the tribal people to extend their support to them," ZSUM, CDSU and TKS added.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of some students' unions like SDSA and NSUC 'spewing venom' against the incumbent executive members of ATSUM to twist the factual chronology of events in the formation of ATSUM, the All Tribal Students' Union Manipur today pointed out that ATSUM came into being officially on November 2 last year as a follow up of the endorsement of constituent units like CDSU, NSUC, TKS, SDSA and ZSUM on the formation of ATSUM under the convenorship of the chairman of ZSUM during a meeting held on
April 5, 2012 .
As such, branding the incumbent ATSUM as 'self-style' is a misnomer, the ATSUM statement said adding that labeling irrelevant term that is not synonymous to the argument/statement amply reflects one's weakness.
The statement added that in its effort to bring unity and solidarity amongst the tribals of the State, the union has been maintaining silence for quite a long time despite allegations from few individuals in the name of the organisations.
On the question of whether the present ATSUM is mandated or not may be well understood by the responsive activities of the hill districts and an informal second round of talk before the official talk held on Feb 16 with the Govt of Manipur, the statement said.
If the SDSA and NSUC do not want to eschew from addressing tribal issues, they should come to the mainstream rather than hurling sarcastic words to provoke the ATSUM executives.
The so called interim body which has been reported to have formed two days back do not have the legitimacy for whatsoever reason due to the fact that any organisation cannot exist without the official consent of the federating units and for that matter the constituent units of ATSUM cannot give room as the case is purely a rebellious move, it stated.
"The runaway group cannot retain the original nomenclature and hence NSUC and SDSA in collaboration with the KSO may name their organisation other than ATSUM if they so desire," it posited.