Newmai News Network
Imphal | October 22
Students on Friday ‘attempted’ to storm the office of the Minorities and Other Backward Classes (MOBC) department of Manipur government in Imphal, demanding the release of their pending scholarships amounts. Timely intervention by the police prevented any untoward incident.
The students carried out the agitation in the MOBC office in Imphal’s North AOC under the aegis of the All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU). The agitating students alleged that post and pre-matric scholarships for the OBC and SC students sponsored by the Union ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment are not released for the last two years. They shouted slogans demanding immediate release of the pending scholarships in front of the MOBC office as the police prevented them from storming the office premises.
The situation calmed down when the police allowed some leaders to proceed and held meetings with officials of the concerned department. The students dispersed themselves after the officials of the department assured to release the scholarship amounts on or before November 15, during the talks with the student leaders.
Talking to reporters after meeting with officials of the MOBC, a student leader alleged that the scholarship money was not released timely by the department in the last three years.
The scholarship was introduced with an objective to provide support for socio-economically backward students. However, the delay in the release severely hurt the morale of the beneficiary students, the agitating students said. The irresponsible nature of the state government is highly condemnable, they added. The students also said that demanding the release of the pending scholarship amount, the AMSU had earlier also locked the same office as the concerned department failed to translate into action even after they served a 15-day ultimatum.
AMSU has been urging the department to release the scholarships given by MOBC without any delay, the students added.
