Agitation against ‘mass court arrest’ continues in Manipur

Our Correspondent

Imphal, June 6 (EMN): The volunteers of the Democratic Students’ Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) including the girls continued to take up ‘mass court arrest agitation’ in Imphal on Wednesday. The agitation was conducted as a part of the ongoing protest against the alleged harassment to their family members and searching of the volunteers and leaders in their respective houses by the state police in connection to the vandalising of National Sports University (NSU) office in Imphal on June 1.

The agitators on June 6 tried to storm the chief minister’s official bungalow in Imphal. However, they were prevented by the state police force, including women police team, soon after the students’ volunteers started shouting slogans on the road median located in front of the bungalow.

On June 4 too, the DESAM volunteers protested the government’s plan to open the campus of the NSU at Lucknow. Instead of developing the required infrastructure of the main campus in Manipur, they tried to storm the chief minister bungalow demanding mass court arrest.

According to the students’ body, the walk-in-interview for recruitment of faculty members for the courses, which would be opened at Lucknow campus, has been fixed on June 11.

The DESAM functionaries also alleged that after the ‘threadbare’ discussion with experts, the government was asked to ensure that three major courses-sports—journalism, sports management, sports performance—are first opened at main campus in Imphal but the government had been paying little heed to it.

The DESAM volunteers had also ransacked the administrative block office of the NSU at Manipur Olympic House in Khuman Lampak on June 1 morning.

Interestingly, reliable report said that registrar of NSU, K Radhakumar, had written a letter to the union youth affairs and sports ministry stating not to open any outlying campus of the NSU until its main campus is fully functional.