MBC, YAS strike agreement
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 21 2015 : An agreement was reached between the Manipur Baptist Convention (MBC) and Youth Affairs and Sports Department, Govt of Manipur during a meeting held at MBCCC conference hall in connection with the physical assault, racial abuse and forcible taking of photographs of four students at Khuman Lampak stadium on Nov 18 .

According to a memorandum of understanding, a copy of which was made available to the press, the meeting was attended by MBC Church leaders, officials of YAS Dept and representatives of Thadou Students' Association (TSA) and All Manipur Students' Union (AMSU) .

The understanding was signed by W Bhaktaraj Singh, Director, YAS, Govt of Manipur and Rev Dr W Konghar, general secretary, MBC.

Thangtinlen Haokip, president, TSA, Imphal and S Subhachandra, president AMSU appended signatures as the witnesses.

Terming the incident as unfortunate, the stakeholders agreed to work zealously so that the matter should not escalate further.

It was agreed that the YAS Department should accept accountability for the incident.

The culprits should also apologise to the victims and to the stakeholders, face to face and via the media.

Disciplinary action should be immediately taken up against the culprits by YAS Department to contain recurrence of the incident within the ambit of their statutes.

The YAS Department has agreed to commensurately compensate the four victims for the physical assault, mental trauma caused and -the explicit innuendos to damage their modesty and good name; - Regarding the video/photo clip in which the victims were forcibly made to embrace each other, it was agreed that the cameras/mobile should be confiscated and the clipping deleted immediately.

In the event of circulation of the photos/videos, the culprits' should publicly apologise and own responsibility for the damage done to the image and chastity of the four victims, via the media.

The victims were forcibly made to sign that no harm was done to them.

This paper should be produced by the culprits and the same be destroyed.

It was also agreed that cyber experts be consulted in order to contain the photo clips in the event of circulation.

The Department will host a conciliatory meeting so as to assuage the feelings of the victims and bring- forth reconciliation between the contending parties.

The meeting is scheduled on Nov 23 at MBC Campus at 9 am.

After an elaborate and exhaustive discussion and in the spirit of bringing forth a peaceful and amicable solution, all the stakeholders to this incident (MBC, YAS, TSA, AMSU) have declared that the matter has been finally put to rest.

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