IMPHAL, February 5: The ongoing Jiri-Tupul railway line construction work under the North-East Frontier Railways has stopped following the ongoing agitation of the All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) to ban all National Projects in hill areas.
It may be noted that ATSUM had submitted its memorandum to the state CM with their six point demands in November 2012.
The demands include setting up of a Manipur State Commission for ST, providing adequate infrastructure to the Regional Campus of IGNTU and other educational institutions in the hill districts, providing effective governance, streamlining reservation system of SC/ST etc.
ATSUM has also given an ultimatum on Jan 10, putting a deadline for Jan 18 to the state Government.
On January 21, ATSUM took a resolution to ban all national projects from the hill area after a total silence from the government.
Consequently, all the tunnel construction works of the railway line have come to a complete halt from yesterday.
ATSUM had earlier called a 24 hours state wide general strike in January this year in pursuit of the said demands.
A source said that about ten private companies were engaged in the construction works of Jiri-Tupul railway under NF Railway: Coastal Project Ltd, ECI, Unimax, Nayak, Leroy Infra Pvt Ltd, Sushi Hi-Tech and Triveni to name some.
The said railway line is divided into two stretches: the Tupul-Khongsang section manned by NF Railway based in Imphal and the Khongsang-Jiri section which is under the control of NF Railway, Silchar in Assam.
