Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 4
National Highway 39, the vital commercial artery connecting Dimapur to the rest of the State and also to the rest of the country would be closed down completely on August 7, Monday by a Dimapur-based students organization agitating against the recent Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) debacle where a senior DAN government minister allegedly deprived a JEE merit-candidate to accommodate his own son who didn’t clear the prescribed exams.
The total closure has been called by the Highway Area Sumi Students’ Union (HASSU) intensifying pressure towards fulfillment of two main demands i.e., that Education Minister Imkong Imchen be removed from the Council of Ministers and that the nominations of his son Sungtikumba L Imchen (ranked 464th) and Akhovi Pase (ranked 627th), reported to be the nephew of Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio’s wife be cancelled. Another demand is that the minister himself offer an unconditional apology to Niuto S Chishi in particular and the students’ community in general and “gracefully stepping down” on moral grounds “for unconstitutional, anti-students/people activities, abuse and misuse of public office.” The closure of National Highway 39 on the said date would commence from 6:00am to 6:00pm.
“The Highway Area Students’ Union would like to caution all the general public plying through NH 39 to kindly cooperate in order to avoid violence or any untoward action for neglecting our appeal” the HASSU stated in a release issued through its president Hukugha Tuccu and General Secretary Viboli Ayemi. Vehicles belonging to the Police, Military, Para-military, ambulances, Doctors on duty, the Press/media and medical and emergency cases have been exempted from the purview of the bandh
The HASSU warned that it would bear no responsibility for losses/damage of vehicles during the prescribed bandh hours after circulation of this information.
“Mr Imkong L Imchen, Minister for IT & TE clarified in the local dailies that his son Sungtikumba L Imchen could not pass the JEE selection in the merit-list so he pleaded the Union Minister to allot a seat to his son as a token of affection and concern” the HASSU maintained adding that the Minister accommodated his son and Pase in two additional seats and in the process depriving the deserving candidate Chishi of his seat. “This is a clear case of corruption and nepotism indulged by the Minister who at one time had made an oath of allegiance to serve the state without fear or favor, affection or ill-will. The manner in which the selection was made not only jeopardized the future of Mr Niuto S Chishi but it is a matter of great concern to each and every individual Naga” the organization added. The HASSU asserted that such corrupt practices should be done away with since even in the near future other deserving students will have to face the same fate, it stated. “Now is the right time that the right-thinking citizens should voice their views in condemning the illegal practices so that the issue of nepotism and favoritism will not raise its ugly head in future” it urged.
The HASSU appealed to the students’ community, youths and parents to cooperate through prayer and moral support as well as physical participation while informing pastors and church members to inform of the developments on Sunday August 6 itself to all believers.
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