Student bodies demand House resolution on NRC, population panel
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, July 26 2022:
Six student bodies
of the state namely AMSU,
AIMS, DESAM, KSA, MSF and
SUK, have urged the state
government to take up and
adopt a unanimous resolution
with regard to updating the
National Registrar of Citizens
(NRC) and establishment
of the State Population
Commission in the ongoing
session of the 12th Manipur
Legislative Assembly.
According to a statement
released by the student bodies,
the indigenous population
of Manipur is being
threatened by the influx of
migrants both from outside
the state and country, causing
a huge population imbalance.
As such, there is a need to
establish a State Population
Commission.
The student
bodies then appealed to the
House members to take up
a unanimous resolution for
update of NRC and check
the influx of outsiders in
the state.
The statement further urged
for taking a decision on setting
up a Manipur Language
Policy, Language Commission
and Transliterate Committee
for preserving the indigenous
languages of the state, in addition
to publishing reference
books on Meetei Mayek, which
is Manipur's official script.
Although Meetei Mayek is now
being taught at the Master's
level, most of the books are
in Bengali script and yet to
be translated for the benefit
of the students.
The government
has been made aware
of this issue previously, they
pointed out.
Bodies also urged the government to see to the inclusion of Meetei Mayek in the UPSC and MPSC examination and further take action against the import of 'Eyong' cloths manufactured outside into the state, thereby protecting the interest of indigenous weavers of the state.
Further urging the government to protect the indigenous Eyong cloth and other designs under Intellectual Property Rights, the student bodies urged for adequate production of threads for weavers and strict punishment for those involved in the drug trade.
The government should uphold the people's trust with regard to its announcement for rationalisation of teachers in accordance with the subjects-students ratio.
The government should take a decision in the Assembly session to take up steps to increase the enrolment rate in government schools, it asserted.
Mention may be made here that COCOMI, an umbrella body of various CSOs in the state along with UNC had been urging the state government to come up with a base year for NRC to identify migrants and deport illegal ones, while also urging the House members to decide on establishment of a State Population Commission during the ongoing Assembly session.