Imphal, February 19: All Tribal Students' Union, Manipur (ATSUM) has accused some underground organisations of hampering functioning of the Tribal Development (TD) department for last many months.

The ATSUM said that these armed organisations are constantly demanding certain amount of percentage of funds from the TD department.

ATSUM said that although the tribal students' body understood "the position of the revolutionary groups in matters of financial resources and the kind of expectation they have on the people and also the responsibility of the public towards them (armed revolutionary groups), we note with pain that whatever fund available in the Tribal Development department is meant for the rural tribal folks who really requires such financial help from the welfare state.

Whe ther it does actually reach to where it is supposed to or not, is a different matter although we are very much concerned with it too".

The ATSUM also earnestly appealed all the groups concern to think it over again before asking or accepting any amount of money from the TD department.

It also expressed that any right thinking person or individual or organisation fighting for the common public ought to heed the feeling and sentiment of the tribal people.

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