Imphal, January 30 2010: While expressing serious concern over the rising crime rate in the State, the Manipuri Students' Federation (MSF) has blamed misgovernance by the State Government for the scourge.

A statement issued by the student body remarked that the State administration is disconnected from the people.

Regarding the failure of the Government to book criminals and bring prompt justice in several cases, the MSF attributed it to unwillingness of the public to cooperate with the Government/police.

To bring the people closer, the Government need to cleanse itself from corruption and start working transparently.

Observing that killing of wives by husbands, assaulting and killing common people by both security personnel and unidentified persons have become 'current affairs' of Manipur, the MSF decried that criminals have started targeting women and children most often in the recent past.

Measures taken up by the Government to tackle the ever multiplying issues and problems of the society are not at all satisfactory to the people, it asserted.

The brutal rape and murder of Angom Chanbi and her daughter Meneka was a challenge to the society.

It was an act extremely scornful of the student community.

Expressing serious concern over the brutal murder of the young student together with her mother, the MSF said that it was prepared to join any agitation that may be launched to bring justice in the double murder case.

It has become regular practice to form JACs when any person is killed without any plausible reason either by security forces or unidentified armed persons or criminals, only to bury up the issue after sometime.

On the other hand, the Government never acted in accordance to wish of the people.

It has been working only to contain issues from time to time with ad-hoc measures rather than addressing the issues in its totality.

Such attitude of the Government only contributed to the alarming rise in crime rate.

With crimes of all sorts becoming order of the day, JACs have become one ubiquitous body in every locality of the State, the student body lamented.

Urging upon the State Police to arrest culprits of the murder of the mother-daughter duo at the earliest, MSF remarked that efforts of the police to identify and track down the killers seemed to be making little progress.

Instead of doing investigation on its own at a snail's pace, the Government need to work out a formula where the people can come forward and help police in tracking down the killers, it asserted.

There is no possibility the murderers can evade arrest if the police and public join hands and work together to book the culprits.

Observing that crimes have been overshadowed by crimes occurring in sequence thereby burying up the crimes that occurred earlier without ever achieving justice, the MSF noted that people do not have the strength to undertake protest movements much longer as crimes of different sorts have been occurring quite frequently.

So far, the Government never tackled any criminal activity with due seriousness until it became a State-wide issue.

The Government never bothered to address deadly crimes in such a manner that it can be a lesson to all criminals and deter them from indulging in further criminal activities in future.

Asserting that resorting to only military/police force cannot solve the myriad problems and issues plaguing the State, the MSF reiterated that the Government should focus on maintaining a connectivity with the public.

Until and unless, the State Government mend its ways of governance, Manipur may see simultaneous crimes of different degree in not so distant future, cautioned the student body.

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