The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) and North Eastern Hill University Students’ Union (NEHUSU) have called off their proposed rally schedule on Monday following the state government’s statement on scholarships.
On Friday, the state government received an official order issued by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The grant-in-aid of Rs 41.25 crore is the second instalment for 2022-23 which the state government will pay to around 67,000 beneficiaries.
“After seeing the CM’s statement that the tribal ministry has issued a notification that the pending amount of Rs 41 crore for scholarships for the students has been released to the state we have decided to call off the peaceful protest march rally,” HYC leader Enlang Sawian told reporters on Saturday.
He however said that even though they have called off the protest they want to send a clear message to the Education department to speed up the transfer of the amount released to the student account within two weeks.
Stating that last year the scholarship was released in December which helped the students to pay their renewal fees and admission, Sawian said this time the scholarship is already very late and the students from weak economic backgrounds are in dilemma and the state government should not further delay.
“If the department fails to speed up the disbursement of the scholarships within the time frame the two organizations will take steps,” he added.
The unions’ leaders have also said that every year they have to agitate and protest to deliver the student’s rights and warn that if this style of functioning of the government persists in the future they will hit the street without warning.
Meanwhile, given the President of India Droupadi Murmu’s visit to the state the student leaders, have demanded the ministers of the state to apprise her of the various education issues faced by the state including at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) that lack various departments like Psychology, Masters in Music, etc.
“Let our ministers raise serious issues and make heard to the president the needs of various departments at NEHU and the education system in our state that has drastically dropped,” they added.
In addition, the HYC leader said that the pressure group will also be taking up with the government issues related to the Central University Entrance Test (CUET).
The HYC leader also demanded 80 percent reservation for the indigenous tribals of the state for the CUET in all colleges of the state.
“If there are no reservations for our people many of our students will suffer and become drop-outs,” the HYC stated.
They also said in NEHU after the CUET the recent batches are not the tribals from the state but mostly non-tribals from states like UP and Bihar and without reservation it will deter the progress of the students of the state.
“Our people are not weak in studies but considering the kind of infrastructure the state gives to our students in terms of education and lack of coaching centres, etc are the reasons behind,” they said adding that one of their demands will also be to set up the coaching centres in every district of the state to assist the students to compete in various computer-based examination conducted by the National Testing Agency.
