Newmai News Network
Imphal | July 19
Death of a 14-year-old girl student in her hostel room in a suspicious manner irked student bodies in Manipur.
Ningthoujam Babysana, a student of Class-VII at Standard Robarth Higher Secondary School in Imphal’s Canchipur, was found dead in her hostel room by hanging with a rope, in a controversial circumstance.
While the school authority was tight-lipped on the death, the family of the deceased strongly alleged that she was hung after being murdered.
After Students’ Union of Kangleipak (SUK) forced the hostel with immediate effect, two student bodies on Friday pressed the state government to frame guidelines for running hostels/boarding in schools (both private and government schools) in the state.
Addressing a joint press conference on Friday afternoon, Democratic Students’ Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) and Apunba Ireipakki Maheiroi Sinpanglup (AIMS) said that they took the incident seriously.
Asserting that the Thursday’s incident was not the first case that happened in hostels in Manipur, the two student bodies expressed concern over the way hostels are run.
Student bodies have been pressing the state government to frame guidelines for opening and running hotels. "But positive action is yet to be initiated by the concerned authority", they alleged.
DESAM general secretary, Shital Oinam alleged that in the absence of guidelines for opening hostels or boarding in schools, the school authorities were running the boarding in their own styles. “This has led to such unwanted incidents,” he alleged.
The DESAM leader then demanded that the state government must come up with guidelines to be followed while opening hostels in private as well as government schools.
He further said that till the government comes up with the guidelines, the two student bodies have decided to have close vigilance on the functioning of hostels across the state.
He then demanded government initiate an investigation into the death of the 14-year-student in the hostel room of the private school and deliver justice to the family of the victim.
Taking part in the press conference held at the DESAM office in Imphal, AIMS vice president, Saikhom Premchand expressed concern while alleging that various unwanted incident are happening in hostels/boarding in the schools.
