IMPHAL, August 3: Taking strong exception to the government`™s attempt to suppress the ongoing mass movement by using excessive police forces mainly against student protestors who are demanding enforcement of ILPS or similar law, the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) has pointed out that the government`™s habit of realising outstanding issues pertaining to the State only after witnessing public outrage is not a new thing.
In a statement issued to the press today, the JCILPS reiterated that the ongoing mass agitation demanding enactment of a new bill to safeguard the indigenous people by passing an acceptable bill is due to the inaction of the government to do so for a long time despite launching different forms of intense agitation by many sections.
The fact that it is the people not the government who are safeguarding the territorial integrity and its identity by launching various movements is clearly evident from the past unforgettable incidents, it asserted.
Alleging that the government is in the mood to suppress the ongoing mass movement by using excessive power and police forces, the statement said education has fallen prey to the hands of the government as closure and re-opening of educational institutions are decided by the government itself.
To order re-opening of all the education institutions which were shut down by the government for a long time, before performing last rites of Sapam Robinhood who was killed in police action in an ILPS agitation and delivering justice to the death is like inviting more untoward incidents, it said.
Instead of passing an acceptable bill which is the collective wishes of the people and letting the last rites of Robinhood to perform after doing so, the government has been engaging in political game and delaying tactics of which the people well understood, the statement said.
Pledging that the committee will not remain as a mere spectator to the excesses of police with some male personnel beating and kicking girl students who are just demanding ILPS implementation or similar law, the committee in the statement asked the government to shun dictatorship type of rule at once. It then appealed to the people to continue with the civil disobedience movement against the government till a new bill acceptable to the people is passed.