Imphal, May 15 2009: Asserting that the decision of Manipur University authority not to give cognizance and to dissolve Manipur University Students' Union (MUSU) was irrational and arbitrary, the Manipuri Students' Federation (MSF) said that MUSU was inevitable in the functioning of the university.

In a representation submitted to the Vice-Chancellor of Manipur University, MSF observed that the elected students' body in the form of students' union provides a platform to students to learn and exercise democratic values and practices by either representing or electing their own representatives which in turn help the students groom themselves to be responsible citizens of the country.

Considering these merits, academic institutions in the land have students' union constituted by duly elected members since a long time back.

Taking strong exception to the refusal of MU authority to give due cognizance to MUSU by citing University Act, allegedly out of context, MSF asked the MU authority why they did not adopt the same line in the preceding years starting from 2005 .

Asking who should be held accountable for the huge amounts of money sanctioned in the name of former MUSU presidents�� Kh Ashokumar, Ch Rupachandra, Ph Dinesh and Ksh Narayan, MSF asserted that those officials who represented MU authority during these periods should resign from their respective posts/offices on moral ground.

The purported statement of the Senior Public Relations Officer of MU about constitution of students' council in lieu of MUSU was concocted and a blatant lie, it asserted while pointing out contradictions in the press statement.

"It stated that framing statute and incorporating it in the University Act is a very difficult task and time consuming process", MSF quoted questioning as to why the MU authority in knee-jerk and panicky fashion so hurriedly manoeuvred to institute a students' council if it was a difficult and time consuming process.

Lambasting MU authority for its refusal to give cognizance to MUSU, MSF asserted that the MU authority could not pretend to be unaware of the MUSU Election 2009-10 process.

The MSF reminded that the MU authority represented by the Registrar himself, vide official letter No MU/3-33/84/Admn 1/45 requested the SP, Imphal West for security measures and deployment of police picket in MU campus on April 20, the day scrutiny and April 24, the day of polling.

The official letter also asked for sending police patrolling team from April 16 to April 24.Before this, the Registrar forwarded for sanctioning Rs 87,000 for conducting MUSU 2009-10 elections and subsequently, Rs 75,000 was sanctioned by the Deputy Finance Office.

According to Lyngdoh Commission, "no faculty member, nor any member of the administration shall be permitted to hold any post of the executive of such representative body, nor shall be allowed to be a member of any such representative body", the MSF quoted while alleging that initiative of the MU authority to replace MUSU with students' council was aimed at gagging the voice and curtailing the democratic rights of MU's student community.

Again quoting the comment of Chancellor Prof PN Shrivastav made on May 3, that university can have a duly elected students' union, MSF accused the VC of deliberately sidelining the provision of having a duly elected students' union in MU and keeping it in abeyance for three and half years since October13, 2005 in connivance with the Registrar .

Urging upon the MU authority to revoke its decision of not giving cognizance to the elected MUSU and dissolving it permanently, MSF would be launching an intensive struggle together with student community of MU to restore the democratic rights and also to fulfil the aspirations of the student community, it cautioned.

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