Politics / Manipur

IMPHAL, April 26: The Manipuri Students Federation, MSF, has decided to force the closure of all educational institutions in the state, including schools and colleges as well as Manipur University from tomorrow in protest against police harassment of MSF leaders and volunteers in connection with the ongoing tussle over parking fee rates. Making the announcement today, the MSF general secretary Ashirjit Luwang told media persons at a press conference today that despite initiating negotiations on the parking fee tussle, apart from arresting several MSF volunteers and functionaries, other MSF...

IMPHAL, April 26: Former Deputy Chief Minister L Chandramani today said that he has been trying to resolve the leadership crisis of the Manipur State Congress Party (MSCP) as the Chairman of a five member Re-unification Committee which was formed just after the fall of the then MSCP led United Front Government. Asked if there is any possibility of resolving the crisis in the party when the Election Commission has already recognized the two groups separately as MSCP(N) and MSCP(C), he said that anything can happen in politics and nothing should be read as final or definite. The time is not...

IMPHAL, April 24: Five persons have been handed over to Singhat police station in Churachandpur district of Manipur by the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, police said today. Four civilians and a People's Liberation Army (PLA) cadre were handed over to Singhat police station on Sunday night, the police said. Earlier, Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) had set a deadline of 24 hours for the Manipur Director General of Police (DGP) to locate the whereabouts of four persons believed to have been arrested by BSF personnel after an encounter. The deadline expired yesterday noon, an MHRC...

IMPHAL, April 25: After burning their school text books yesterday students of Catholic School, Canchipur today began dharna at the school gate demanding resumption of classes which have been remaining closed for the past one month. Catholic Schools in the valley reported money demand served by a militant organisation. While Little Flower resumed classes yesterday others remained closed. Hundreds of Catholic School students were provoked yesterday when their school was still found locked up and they burnt their books in protest against it at the school gate. Students of class VIII to X in their...

IMPHAL, April 25: Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam's agenda for austerity measures seems to have conveniently excluded his official bungalow. Despite the fact that the state government is facing acute financial crisis and its employees and pensioners have not been paid their salaries and pensions for the last two and a half months, in addition to the ban imposed by the Reserve Bank of India over all financial transactions of the state government, the recent major renovation works in the CM's bungalow is believed to have cost the state exchequer quite a few millions of rupees. A question has...

IMPHAL, April 25: The deck is cleared for a four cornered contest to 4 Kshetrigao Assembly seat with the returning officer S Binodini issuing a list of four validly nominated candidates. Laishram Somorjit of Chaoba faction of the Manipur State Congress Party, MSCP(C), was disqualified during the scrutiny today, leaving the four out of five nominated for candidature in the fray. The candidates are ex-minister and MLA of the Assembly constituency Mohd. Muhamuddin Shah, son of former MLA and Samata Party president, Basantakumar Wangkhem, Vivek Raj Wangkhem, Irengbam Sanatomba of Congress-I and...

IMPHAL, April 24: The apex body of the students' community in Manipur the All Manipur Students' Union (AMSU) alongwith the parents and guardians of over 15,000 students in eight different Catholic schools in and around Imphal called upon the authority concerned to reopen the Catholic schools on or before April 30 in the interest of the future generations. A decision has also been taken by the AMSU in this regard during a joint meeting of the executive members of the AMSU and parents or guardians of the school children studying in Catholic schools. The AMSU while asking the school authorities...

IMPHAL, April 24: Irate students of Catholic School, Canchipur gathered at the school gate today and made a bonfire of their school text books in protest against the closure of the school for the last one month. Police were called in and they had to resort to a mild lathi charge to disperse the students. Mission schools located in the valley had closed down for the last one month following monetary demands served on them by an underground outfit. According to reports the students numbering around 500 gathered at the gate of the school at about 9 am and forced open the gate which was kept under...

NEW DELHI, April 24: In a development that may raise the hackles of the human rights bodies, the Minister of Home Affairs (MHA) has identified the Assam based Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS) as among six Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) having links with the militant outfits. The fall out of the move is that all the state governments in the Northeastern Region have been alerted not to release any government funds to any NGO in the region without proper verification. It has been decided that the Union government would release funds to NGOs in the region only after physical verifications...

IMPHAL, April 24: Altogether five candidates filed nominations papers for the Kshetrigao by-election which will be held on May 11. Former BJP vice-president Irengbam Sanatomba filed his nomination as Congress (1) candidate on the closing day today. The four other candidates are W Hemanta of MSCP (N), Vivek Raj Wangkhem of Samata, Laishram Somorjit of MSCP (C) and Md Muhamuddin Shah of RJD. Among the candidates, Md Muhamuddin Shah filed four nomination papers (two as an independent candidate) while Vivek Raj Wangkhem filed three nomination papers. Scrutiny will be held tomorrow at 11 am while...