IMPHAL, October 26: A JAC formed against the closing of Pong Road along with the people of the surrounding areas affected by the closing of the said road stormed JN Institute of Medical Sciences at Porompat today.
Womenfolk forcefully locked the gates of JNIMS`™ ATC, OPD and Administrative Block and finally sat in front of the main gate blocking even the pedestrian.
The agitators dividing themselves into groups at around 10:30 am started locking every gate in the buildings of JNIMS one after another.
People who were already inside the hospital buildings were not allowed to come out, as much as the people who were outside were also not allowed to enter the building, halting the functioning of the hospital today.
When, some womenfolk numbering around 5 or 6 tried to lock the gate of the Administrative Block building, a police personnel posted there visibly alone, first tried to prevent them from locking the gate by warning them verbally.
As the group did not stop he fired a shot in the air. Hearing the sound of bullet firing more people came rushing towards the police personnel and surrounded him instead of running away.
The situation became more intense. There were pushes and pulls between the agitators and some police personnel along with the hospital guards posted there who were trying to save the police personnel from the mob.
The mob which was larger in number took full control of the situation however they did not beat up the police personnel or cause any damage to anything in the compound.
However there was a lot of verbal confrontations, pushes and pulls with the police personnel, who fired the shot, and the mob. In the process the police personnel shirt buttons were torn off.
The police personnel was rescued after higher ranking police personnel arrived and took control of the situation.
Angered by the incident the mob also closed down shops including medical stores at the surrounding areas infront of the main gate of JNIMS.
Later, at around 12:30 pm a few members of the JAC were called inside the office room of Director of JNIMS for dialogue.
After this a little calm returned for a while.
However as the Director and the JAC members could not reached an agreement an intense drama started again and blocking the main gate of JNIMS continued.
JAC convenor Tomba speaking to media persons said the JAC had repeatedly approached the JNIMS authority and had submitted memorandums regarding the issue.
He said the JAC after convening a public meeting at Manipur Press Club on October 14 had also announced through the media that the JAC would close down JNIMS if their demands to open the road were not fulfilled by October 25.
However their demands were never taken seriously by the State Government or JNIMS authority until an agitation is launched.
When asked was it right to close down hospital for their demands, he replied that if the JNIMS staffs can launched cease work strike for weeks just because of not getting their salary what is wrong in their action as they are suffering badly because of the closure of the Pong Road.
He also strongly condemned their local MLAs namely Khurai Kendra MLA Bijoy, Khetrigao Kendra Amin Shah and MLA Biren for their inaction towards the issue.