DMU students allege Govt apathy, VC clarifies
University campus not demarcated, registered as government land
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, July 14 2025: Erstwhile Dhanamanjuri College, currently DM University (DMU), which is one of the oldest educational institutions in the state, is in a complex situation as its campus was found not demarcated and the University not in possession of any land deeds.

The College was first established in 1946 as DM College of Arts under the patronage of Ngangbam Chanu Dhanamanjuri, the then Queen of Manipur.

Even after 79 years, the campus still remains under state land.

As the campus land has not been demarcated, the funds sanctioned for installing gate of the campus continue to remain unutilised and the work uninitiated, informed vice chancellor Prof Chandbabu.

DMU students allege Govt apathy, VC clarifies

Meanwhile, protesting against the non-installation of the gate, non-repairing of the roads and lack of security, students of DMU locked offices in the Administrative Block including the vice chancellor's room and shut down all operations of the varsity.

Around 11am Monday, members of DMU Students' Union stormed the Administrative Block and urged the staff to leave the premises.

VC Prof W Chandbabu Singh came out of his office and had talks with the members of the Students' Union to withdraw the protest.

However, the students refused to budge, stating that their demands have not considered for a long time.

The students then went on to lock the Block.

In this regard, DMU Students' Union president Cha-lamba Khangembam said that DMU must be the only university without a campus gate and absence of security.

The absence of a gate has allowed goods trucks/vehicles, passenger carriers and private vehicles to pass through the campus, thereby affecting the academic atmosphere of the university.

On top of this, several accidents have occurred in the campus, injuring students.

The roads continue to deteriorated, impacting everyone.

He continued that students had been demanding for repairing the roads, installing the gates and deploying security for a long time including meeting and urging the VC to apprise the government for addressing the demands.

However, despite submitting multiple letters to the Governor and assurances given to look into their grievance, no action has been taken up till date.

The students had staged numerous protests in this regard including shutting down the University for a few days some months ago.

However, their demands went unheard.

As such, joint protests were launched by UG and PG students.

Thus, until the gate of the University is installed, the roads repaired and security deployed, all activities of DMU shall be halted, Chalamba stated.

Meanwhile, VC Chandbabu explained that although efforts are on to fulfil demands of the students, relevant works remain pending due to the inclement weather conditions as \vell as the campus land not registered in the University's name.

He informed that the government had sanctioned funds for installing gates on the western, eastern and southern points of the campus.

However, the work could not be initiated due to non-demarcation of the campus land.

The campus land is not under DMU's name but identified as state land, he confirmed.

Further informing that process is underway to demarcate the campus land, the VC said that discussions have been held with DC and SDO concerned.

After identifying the religious space, the Daag number in the government and the University records would be compared to demarcate the land at the earliest and incorporate DMU's name in the land deed, he said.

However, the process would take some time and cannot be completed in the on-going month.

Once the demarcation is done, the western gate would be first of the three gates to be installed, as has been informed to the government, he conveyed.

Prof Chandbabu continued that permission has been obtained to install concrete blocks on the roads of the University which would last 10-20 years.

However, owing to the landslides on the Imphal-Dimapur road, the materials are stuck for over a month.

If the concrete block is not used, black-topping from drain-to-drain would be done, as has been talked with the chief engineer of PWD.

The work, however, has been delayed due to the rains.

If there is no rainfall within the next 5-6 days, the road repair work would commence.

In addition, six home guards have been deployed for the University, with two personnel deployed keeping guard at each of the three entrances from Tuesday onwards, he informed.