IMPHAL, January 24: The All Tribal Students`™ Union, Manipur is launching a serious of agitations from the first week of February if the government fails to fulfil the promises it has made to ATSUM in November 22 last year, stated ATSUM Education secretary Lovejoy Shimray.
Speaking to the media this evening at the ATSUM office in Nagaram, Shimray said the government is yet to take any action on the agreement it made with ATSUM during the negotiations last November.
The agreement included regularising Adhoc teachers in hill districts but the government has failed to act on that despite the fact that Adhoc teachers in hill districts have suffered for more than a decade, he added.
Accusing the Agriculture minister of hindering the promotion of tribal officers in the Agriculture directorate, he said tribal officers are in the top-most in the seniority list but according to a highly placed source in the department, an officer facing a vigilance case for siphoning off Rs four crores under case number 25/sp-vg/2014 has been projected to become the new Agriculture director by its concerned minister Abdul Nasir.
Lovejoy said the projected officer is at serial no. 5 in the seniority list and is junior to Louis Ngasainao, a tribal officer, but the Agriculture minister has personally given him a major penalty of banning the promotion line.
The minister`™s action bespeaks of communal tendencies, he said, adding that Louis Ngasainao was first in the seniority list but the minister has obstructed his promotion citing a vigilance case which has been already closed in October 14 last year by an order of the principal secretary, Agriculture.
The DPC for his promotion was fixed on October 19 last year but the Agriculture minister has stayed it so far by using an order of the Chief Minister Okram Ibobi to the officials of MPSC, Shimray pointed out.
Further mentioning that among the 1240 Adhoc teachers in the hill districts, 333 were genuinely approved by a committee constituted by the Education department, he said the teachers however have not been regularised till date. ATSUM has demanded the government to regularise them before the commencement of the 2015-16 academic session.
Talking about the contractual lecturers, he said 705 lecturers should be regularised before this academic session. As per the agreement, the government promised the regularisation of lecturers as a Christmas gift but it has failed to keep its promise till today, he said, adding everyone in the hill districts know that there is a lack of lecturers there. The careers of many students are at stake, so ATSUM as a pressure group of the tribal students is taking a serious review of the situation and asking the government to fulfil all the promises it made to ATSUM.
The students`™ body has fixed January 31 as the deadline to the government for fulfilling their.