Imphal, February 16: All Tribal Students' Union, Manipur (ATSUM) has announced that all the tribal students of Manipur University will bid farewell to the university from 11 am of coming March 1 as they no longer feel 'at home' there and have nothing to look forward in it.

In a joint statement, ATSUM president Dr John Pulamte and general secretary Thomas Taishya said that tribal students expressed that their continued stay at the university is going to prolong their frustration and hurt themselves more and more.

Explaining on the stand of the tribal student body, the joint statement said that upgrading Manipur University from a State university to a Central varsity, though laudable in the first place, is unfortunately putting the tribals of the State in un-enviable position and it is now clear that all doors for a tribal joining the University as a Faculty member is more or less closed.

Though 31 percent reservation for tribals in admission to PG, M Phil and Ph D courses still exist, it is certain that those degrees are not going to provide a tribal any viable employment opportunities and further studies/research in the University, the joint statement asserted while asking 'what is a PG degree if one is not going to get a job that a matriculate can get'.

It further pointed out that while Manipur University was a State university, there were two tribals out of 121 teaching faculty members.

However, after elevation to a Central university, 21 posts of professors, 26 posts of reader and 23 posts of lecturers were recruited but not a single tribal was among those recruited.

Now, another post of four professors, four readers and five lecturers are being advertised.

How many of these posts will ST candidates get is for all to ponder, it added.

"We do agree that being a Central University, Manipur University has to follow rules and guidelines as followed by other Central Universities.

However, it is unfortunate the said rules and guidelines benefited only a particular community (some under General and some under OBC category), thus, slamming the doors for the tribals who constitute one-third of the State's total population," the student body said, while lamenting over the failure of the State Government and the University authorities to do the needful toward addressing the genuine grievance of the tribal people.

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