Imphal, October 05 2010: An underground armed group has issued an extortion demand for ' 1 crore from the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur (COHSEM) which has caused panic among the officials concerned and obstructions in the normal working of the Council.

The staff employees of the Council staged a sit-in-protest from 10 am till 4 pm today in front of the Council's office appealing to the UG group concerned to withdraw the extortion demand in the interest of education.

Reliable sources said, a letter of extortion demand in an envelope was sent to the office through the official dag.

The demand letter, addressed to the Secretary and Chairman of the Council, said that a sum of ' 1 crore from the Council's revenue should be handed over to the organisation on or before October 7 .

The group had threatened that unless the amount is paid within the deadline, no vehicle of the Council should be driven out of the office complex, and all the employees of the Council would suffer.

The sources said that the UG's threat has created panic among the employees, and the employees have not been attending office since the past five days paralysing the working of the office.

All official works for the Council's examination of 2011-12 have stopped.

The sources said, it is unfortunate that the insurgents group made the demand for such a huge amount of money without thinking from where the Council could pay the money.

The amount could not be raised even by putting the whole premises of the Council on sale, an employee said.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by the president of Employees' Association, COHSEM appealed to the underground group to withdraw the demand for paying them ' 1 crore which the Council could never afford to pay.

Yambem Sharat, President of the Association said in the press release that the Council is a body being run under an Act of the government only to conduct the annual examinations of the students of Class XI and XII.

The body is run with the little revenue collected from the students.

Now is the time when the employees of the Council would be working hard to prepare for the conduct of 2011 examinations of Class XI and XII.

Therefore, in the interest of the students of the state, the president urged the insurgents organisation to remove its unbearable burden it had lifted on the Council.

He also appealed to all concerned to let the employees discharge their duties properly so that the upcoming examinations could be conducted successfully and peacefully.

If the employees unable to work in peace, a situation may come about when the Council may be closed down forever, in such a situation, there would be too much problem for the state and students.

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