SHILLONG: The Northeast Students’ Organisation (NESO) will stage demonstrations across the Northeast on November 09, to protest against the central government’s failure to end the six months long violence in Manipur.
“NESO in its executive council meeting held on the 31 October 2023 in Guwahati has resolved to stage a demonstration in all the respective states’ capital of the Northeast on November 09,” NESO chairman Samuel B Jyrwa said in a statement.
The NESO protests will be carried out in all the capital cities of seven Northeast states – Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura.
Jyrwa said that NESO is concerned with the prevailing law-and-order situation in Manipur.
He said that almost six months have passed but the situation in Manipur has not normalised, which “can be attributed to the abject failure on the part of the Government of India to address the situation in an efficient manner”.
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The NESO chairman said that the central government’s failure has put “the lives and property of the people at stake especially the career of the student community”.
He added: “The protest is called to express our strong resentment against the failure of the central government to resolve the six months long ongoing violence in Manipur and demand that the government of India should not continue to turn a blind eye but to find out ways and means (on) how to resolve the issue at the earliest taking into consideration the views and opinions of the concerned stakeholders on board.”
Notably, Manipur has been on the boil since May 3 after ethnic clashes erupted in the state between Kuki and Meitei communities in the state followed by large-scale violence.
Over 180 people have been killed thus far in Manipur and thousands of others displaced due to the violence.
Manipur: Inmates demand essential supplies at relief camp in Bishnupur
Inmates at a relief camp in the Bishnupur district of Manipur staged a sit-in protest to demand essential supplies, including food items and drinking water.
The protest erupted after the authorities concerned denied these items to the inmates, who refused to relocate to a new location, Kuki Girls’ College hostel, approximately 2 kilometres from their current camp.
The inmates, numbering around 200, have been sheltering at the Kumbi Central High School since the aftermath of communal violence that destroyed their homes and belongings in Torbung Bangla, Churachandpur district in Manipur.
“We have been facing a shortage of drinking water for the past three days,” stated a female inmate, K Sangita Devi, to reporters at the protest site.
“We want to continue staying at the present camp until the government constructs our new houses at Torbung Bangla,” she added.
These inmates, including approximately 70 children, have been taking refuge at the camp following the outbreak of ethnic violence on May 3, 2023.