Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Manipur on Monday heaved a sigh of relief as educational institutions reopened after four months following signing of an agreement between the government and Apunba Lup, an umbrella body of 23 organisations, on Friday through which the latter called off its agitation.
Flood Control Minister N Biren Singh said normalcy was restored with curtains coming down on class boycott. “The government is committed to putting the students back in their respective institutions. The parents and guardians had to spend four-long months of uncertainty due to the class boycott,” Singh said. “We have ensured that while the board and annual examinations will be held according to the regular schedule, the losses will be made up through special classes.”
The class boycott was part of an agitation called by Apunba Lup to protest an incident of alleged fake encounter in which a reformed militant and a pregnant woman were killed in the BT Road locality of Imphal on July 23.
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The government initially tried to pass off the incident as another encounter but a newspaper report exposed that it was a deliberate killing. All Manipur Students’ Union, Manipur Students’ Federation and Kangleipak Students’ Association , which are part of Apunba Lup, had called for class boycott, that began on September 9, shutting down educational institutions in the four districts of Imphal Valley .
Though the government, parents bodies and school and college authorities tried to reopen the institutions, supporters of the agitation allegedly set some institutions on fire in order to keep the agitation going.
Seven schools suffered partial damage due to such incidents.