KSO supports ATSUM bandh
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, August 20 2014:
Kuki Students' Organisation (KSO) has extended support to the bandh being called by All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) over the issue of reservation in admission in Manipur University.
A statement issued today by Laxman Serto, Information & Publicity Secretary of KSO General Headquarters said the KSO will lend tacit support to ATSUM in the course of the bandh.
In this respect, it has already instructed the KSO district branches to utilise every available resources at thei disposal for the successful culmination of the bandh, the statement added.
Maintaining that the conduct of the MU authority to forgo the central reservation norms is discriminatory and anti-tribal, the KSO statement recalled that in 2008, the student leaders of tribal student organisations including ATSUM, KSO, ANSAM & MUTSU had courted arrest in the face of the state government crackdown on tribal students over the same reservation policy.
As per the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006', reservation of 31% for ST is to be followed in admission of students in central universities located in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and the Sixth Scheduled areas of Assam, the statement asserted.
The student body said, 'If the MU authority and the state government allowed themselves to be swayed by unscrupulous individuals in the university by neglecting the voices of MUTSU and ATSUM, it will be regretful' .
Saying that the demands of the MUTSU & ATSUM are the rights granted by an Act of government, the KSO warned that trying to snatch away these rights may lead to disintegration and chaos.
The KSO urged the state government and the MU authority to tread carefully over this delicate issue.