ATSUM to shut Hr Sec Schools from Monday
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 13 2015 :
In pursuit of certain long standing demands which remain unfulfilled till date, the All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) has decided to shut all Government higher secondary schools located in hill districts from Monday.
Speaking to media persons at their Nagaram office today, ATSUM president Muan Tombing said that they submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister O Ibobi on April 13 this year demanding fulfilment of some long standing demands.
Another memorandum was also submitted to the State Government demanding fulfilment of the same demands by June 14 .
As there is no sign of fulfilling the demands till date, an ultimatum has been submitted to the Chief Minister today, Muan Tombing said.
In the first phase, all Government higher secondary schools of the hill districts would be shut down indefinitely.
If this fails to evoke a positive response, more intense forms of agitation would be launched.
The exact nature of these intense forms of agitation would be decided later, Muan Tombing said.
Notably, the memorandum submitted to the Government on April 13 and the ultimatum submitted today threatened to ban all National projects and closure of highways.
The scheduled agita- tion would be the fourth phase of a series of agitation code named 'Reckoning of the Others (ROTO)', Tombing said.
The main demands of ATSUM are establishment of ST Commission, regularization of contract lecturers of higher secondary schools and bifurcation of power from Education (S) Director to Additional Director (Hills) .
Other demands are ensuring tribal quota and appointment to backlog posts in Manipur Legislative Assembly, transfer of land records from valley districts to respective hill districts and undertaking a special recruitment drive in JNIMS.
Chief Minister O Ibobi assured ATSUM on October 22 last year that all these demands would be translated into action.
Subsequently, an MoU was signed between the State Government and ATSUM.
But ATSUM has been compelled to launch a fresh round of agitation is there is no indication that these demands would be fulfilled although it has been almost one year since the MoU was signed, Muan Tombing added.