ATSUM asks admitted tribal students to report by 9 am, warns of penalty.
In an unprecedented move, the All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur has warned tribal students who recently got admitted in various post-graduate courses at the Manipur University, as it prepares to take a final call tomorrow on the reservation issue.
A tripartite talk is being planned tomorrow between the state government and MU authorities with ATSUM representatives.
As the floodgates of admission process was opened after a delay of three months during the interim period of Prof Amar Yumnam as VC i/c, more than 70 percent of the ST students whose names were cleared got admitted both through online and personal appearances.
Classes for the new academic session 2016-17 was earlier scheduled to start on November 7.
An ATSUM statement issued by its Information and Publicity secretary Micah Kamei asked tribal students who fail to listen to the call of the tribals and got admitted to various PG courses in MU to report at the office of ATSUM on or before 9 am of November 7.
Students who fail to comply with this notice shall attract befitting penalty, it added.
The statement said, while every section of the tribal society is fighting for our constitutional rights, it has come to the notice of ATSUM that some tribal students have got admitted to various PG courses in MU disrespecting the call of the various apex tribal students’ bodies under the aegis of ATSUM to refrain from getting admission to MU until the reservation imbroglio is resolved permanently as per the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Amendment Act 2012.
The All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur (ATSUM) takes such act of playing with the sentiments of tribals seriously and such act has no place in the tribal society. The Union will not let those defaulting students go free. They must pay the price for their act.
ATSUM had temporarily lifted the economic blockade on national highways following a meeting with the state Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh yesterday.
It may be mentioned here that, when the MU authorities took a final call on the vexed reservation row by following the Academic Council resolution and began the admission process many students including ST students swarmed the MU counters and Bank branch at MU oblivious of the unrest in the campus.
The MU academic council had resolved to adopt the 2006 Act of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) which set the reservation norms at 7.5 % for ST, 15% for SC and 17% for OBC.
The last date of admission was extended from October 29 till November 5 after Prof Adya Prasad Pandey took over as VC.
As MU authorities raised the bar for ST reservation at 31% from 7.5% in the extended period, there was confusion as to how the increased number of students could be accommodated in the classrooms and laboratories.
The maximum capacity of classrooms in most of the departments was 70/80 and the seat capacities in science labs were even less, MU sources said.
Informed sources said, the new VC had promised to bring funds to accommodate the increased number of students in every department.
Meanwhile, the JAC against the implementation of state reservation policy in admission in MU has urged MU authorities to start classes from November 7 as scheduled earlier.
Classes of third semester students have already started, according to MU sources.
The JAC statement said, head of departments should refrain from further giving admission to students who could not get admitted till the last date November 5 and instead follow the seat inter-changeability norms for those students in the waiting list.
Source: Imphal Free Press
