By Manipur University Tribal Students’ Union
February 26, 2008: This is an S.O.S. press statement and clarification before the Manipur University Tribal Students’ Union (MUTSU) leaves the Manipur University campus on 1st of March 2008 at 11 a.m.
The tribal student community in the Manipur University (MU) is not surprised with the voices and opinions raised in the media these days, against our desire of taking the extreme step in leaving the university campus on the 1st of March. Our message to those who are ignorant is ‘forgive them Father for they do not know what is happening’. However ignorance will not be a bliss to make Manipur a peaceful state.
We had been restraining from direct contact with the media so far, due to repeated appeals from the MU authorities, but our side of story and the genuine grievances are never heard by the people. We are compelled to clarify on the bunch of lies made by our Vice-Chancellor.
The teaching staff in the Manipur University is 143 (one hundred and forty three) to be precise, out of which only 3 (three) are from the tribal community and among the 9 (nine) sweepers, 7 (seven) are tribals. In the non-teaching post out of 322 (three hundred and twenty two) general are 273 (two hundred seventy three) whereas tribals have 38 (thirty eight) employees. On the other hand, when we look at the UGC/NET results, every year the general category in Manipur University centre did not even reach half of the tribal successful candidates. What are we to do with our hard earned JRF, NET and Ph.D certificates? Is it for a safai wala? Our genuine grievances are discussed point by point.
1. Systematic deprivation of Scheduled Tribe (ST) seats: Extremely discriminatory procedures are practiced in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff. Against the 31% reservation of seats entitled for the STs, since 1984 in the recruitment of teaching staff, the percentage reserved for STs was reduced to a mere 10% when the University was brought under the government of Manipur, which in fact was not based on state’s reservation policy. Even this 10% reservation was not implemented in letter and spirit all these years. Reservation of seats for ST in jobs and admissions in all state government’s institutions is 31% based on the proportion of the tribal population to that of the total population of the state. After its conversion into central university w.e.f. 13-10-05, the central government’s reservation policy, i.e. 15% for Scheduled Caste (SC) and 7.5% for ST is supposed to have been followed. But this central reservation policy was also grossly violated again. This was manifested in the recruitment of 70 teaching posts in various departments vide recruitment No.MU/4-16/94Fcy (Pt-IV), dated 9th June 2006. Out of these 70 posts, only one post was reserved for ST category. But that post too, has not been filled up till date.
2. MU hijacked by the dominant Other Backward Class (OBC): If central reservation is supposed to be followed; in Manipur we do not have general population? By the way, how many faculties do we have from the mainland India? Is MU only for the Meiteis? Have we changed MU into Meitei University? The erstwhile general communities in the state of Manipur are already notified as OBC. They are entitled to get only 27% reservation in employment and admission. However, the OBC community in the state, who constitutes majority of the community have translated the central reservation norms in their favor and have claimed the major chunk of seats leaving just 7.5% for STs.
3. Myth of unqualified ST candidates: A highly despicable myth has also been built and propagated by the Manipur University authority since its inception that there are no qualified ST candidates for recruitment in the university as teaching staff. However, the University Grants Commission (UGC) lists of the ST candidates who have qualified the UGC-JRF/NET prove otherwise. In fact the general category could not even reached half of the ST students in Manipur centre (to cite an example of just one result, Dec. 2005:- Scheduled Tribes JRF/NET = 36, General category JRF/NET = 17). Besides this, there are a good number of tribal students of Manipur who hold M.Phil and Ph.D degrees from Manipur University and other universities who are still unemployed due to such systematic social-exclusion policies.
For all these above reasons, we demand:
1. Urgently amend the Manipur University Act, 2005 and incorporate a special provision to ensure 34.2% reservation for the scheduled tribes at all levels, i.e., for the teaching and non-teaching staff in Manipur University as per the existing reservation pattern of the government of Manipur which is based on the total strength of the tribal population in the state.
2. Reservation should be based on the total number of vacancies at the time of advertisement for recruitment excluding the back-logs. The practice of creating department-wise cadres and piece-meal recruitments, which tends to create a single posts or cadre to artificially reduce the number of posts in order to avoid reservation, should be strictly forbidden.
3. No recruitment until reservation policy is amended in the Manipur University.
4. Special recruitment drive for scheduled tribes to fill up the back-logs both for teaching and non-teaching staff in Manipur University.
5. A separate Hill University for the tribals of Manipur if the above demands are not possible to be granted. If the rights of the tribals are subjected to further deprivation, one can only expect more social and political unrest, conflicts and turmoil as a result of such systematic exploitations of the tribal people by the majority community. And the government shall be fully responsible for any eventualities if corrective measures are not taken on time. Over the recent years, assertion for our genuine rights through many forums and offices has fallen on deaf ears. Now, we appeal to all the people of Manipur to understand our genuine cause of struggle and support our demands to make our state more humane and peaceful. If there are no developments before the 1st of March, we have nothing left but to abide with the terms set up by our apex body All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur and leave the Manipur University for good.
Sincerely Yours,
Michael Lunminthang
General Secretary
Manipur University Tribal Students’ Union (MUTSU)
Source: KukiForum
February 26, 2008: This is an S.O.S. press statement and clarification before the Manipur University Tribal Students’ Union (MUTSU) leaves the Manipur University campus on 1st of March 2008 at 11 a.m.
The tribal student community in the Manipur University (MU) is not surprised with the voices and opinions raised in the media these days, against our desire of taking the extreme step in leaving the university campus on the 1st of March. Our message to those who are ignorant is ‘forgive them Father for they do not know what is happening’. However ignorance will not be a bliss to make Manipur a peaceful state.
We had been restraining from direct contact with the media so far, due to repeated appeals from the MU authorities, but our side of story and the genuine grievances are never heard by the people. We are compelled to clarify on the bunch of lies made by our Vice-Chancellor.
The teaching staff in the Manipur University is 143 (one hundred and forty three) to be precise, out of which only 3 (three) are from the tribal community and among the 9 (nine) sweepers, 7 (seven) are tribals. In the non-teaching post out of 322 (three hundred and twenty two) general are 273 (two hundred seventy three) whereas tribals have 38 (thirty eight) employees. On the other hand, when we look at the UGC/NET results, every year the general category in Manipur University centre did not even reach half of the tribal successful candidates. What are we to do with our hard earned JRF, NET and Ph.D certificates? Is it for a safai wala? Our genuine grievances are discussed point by point.
1. Systematic deprivation of Scheduled Tribe (ST) seats: Extremely discriminatory procedures are practiced in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff. Against the 31% reservation of seats entitled for the STs, since 1984 in the recruitment of teaching staff, the percentage reserved for STs was reduced to a mere 10% when the University was brought under the government of Manipur, which in fact was not based on state’s reservation policy. Even this 10% reservation was not implemented in letter and spirit all these years. Reservation of seats for ST in jobs and admissions in all state government’s institutions is 31% based on the proportion of the tribal population to that of the total population of the state. After its conversion into central university w.e.f. 13-10-05, the central government’s reservation policy, i.e. 15% for Scheduled Caste (SC) and 7.5% for ST is supposed to have been followed. But this central reservation policy was also grossly violated again. This was manifested in the recruitment of 70 teaching posts in various departments vide recruitment No.MU/4-16/94Fcy (Pt-IV), dated 9th June 2006. Out of these 70 posts, only one post was reserved for ST category. But that post too, has not been filled up till date.
2. MU hijacked by the dominant Other Backward Class (OBC): If central reservation is supposed to be followed; in Manipur we do not have general population? By the way, how many faculties do we have from the mainland India? Is MU only for the Meiteis? Have we changed MU into Meitei University? The erstwhile general communities in the state of Manipur are already notified as OBC. They are entitled to get only 27% reservation in employment and admission. However, the OBC community in the state, who constitutes majority of the community have translated the central reservation norms in their favor and have claimed the major chunk of seats leaving just 7.5% for STs.
3. Myth of unqualified ST candidates: A highly despicable myth has also been built and propagated by the Manipur University authority since its inception that there are no qualified ST candidates for recruitment in the university as teaching staff. However, the University Grants Commission (UGC) lists of the ST candidates who have qualified the UGC-JRF/NET prove otherwise. In fact the general category could not even reached half of the ST students in Manipur centre (to cite an example of just one result, Dec. 2005:- Scheduled Tribes JRF/NET = 36, General category JRF/NET = 17). Besides this, there are a good number of tribal students of Manipur who hold M.Phil and Ph.D degrees from Manipur University and other universities who are still unemployed due to such systematic social-exclusion policies.
For all these above reasons, we demand:
1. Urgently amend the Manipur University Act, 2005 and incorporate a special provision to ensure 34.2% reservation for the scheduled tribes at all levels, i.e., for the teaching and non-teaching staff in Manipur University as per the existing reservation pattern of the government of Manipur which is based on the total strength of the tribal population in the state.
2. Reservation should be based on the total number of vacancies at the time of advertisement for recruitment excluding the back-logs. The practice of creating department-wise cadres and piece-meal recruitments, which tends to create a single posts or cadre to artificially reduce the number of posts in order to avoid reservation, should be strictly forbidden.
3. No recruitment until reservation policy is amended in the Manipur University.
4. Special recruitment drive for scheduled tribes to fill up the back-logs both for teaching and non-teaching staff in Manipur University.
5. A separate Hill University for the tribals of Manipur if the above demands are not possible to be granted. If the rights of the tribals are subjected to further deprivation, one can only expect more social and political unrest, conflicts and turmoil as a result of such systematic exploitations of the tribal people by the majority community. And the government shall be fully responsible for any eventualities if corrective measures are not taken on time. Over the recent years, assertion for our genuine rights through many forums and offices has fallen on deaf ears. Now, we appeal to all the people of Manipur to understand our genuine cause of struggle and support our demands to make our state more humane and peaceful. If there are no developments before the 1st of March, we have nothing left but to abide with the terms set up by our apex body All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur and leave the Manipur University for good.
Sincerely Yours,
Michael Lunminthang
General Secretary
Manipur University Tribal Students’ Union (MUTSU)
Source: KukiForum
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