Manipur: College students threaten to intensify agitation if normal classes do not resume

Non-conduct of classes for days irked students of Dhanamanjuri University (DMU) who staged a protest at DM College campus in Imphal on Saturday.

The students demanded immediate resumption of classes by resolving the ongoing issue.

At a time while conduct of normal classes continued to disturb due to the strike of the staff of the DMU, teachers of government colleges under the aegis of the Federation of Government College Teachers’ Association (FEGOCTA) are on cease work strike demanding implementation of 7th UGC Pay and Regulations 2018. Staff of the DMU have been pressing the authorities of the cluster university to regularise their services before recruitment of fresh staff in the constituent colleges of the university.

Irked by the continuous disturbances in the conduct of the normal classes, students of colleges affiliated to DMU today staged a protest in front of the administrative block of the university. The students demanded immediate solutions to the strikes of the staff of the university and teachers. The protesting students said that normal classes in their colleges remained disturbed for the last around one year since the lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 imposed in the state. “The normal conduct of classes remained disturbed even as the colleges were reopened as the teachers resorted to cease work strike,” one of the students rued.

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The students, then, threatened to launch intense forms of agitations if authorities of the state government fail to make arrangements to resume normal classes in the colleges.

Meanwhile, the cease work strike of the government college teachers under FEGOCTA entered its third day on Saturday. On the third day, the teachers continue to stage protests in their respective college campuses. 

The government college teachers in Manipur have been waiting for over three years for 7th UGC pay since MHRD notified on November 2, 2017 to all the chief secretaries.  FEGOCTA has been demanding implementation of 7th UGC Pay and Regulations, 2018 to the state government since December, 2018.  The state cabinet had already approved the implementation of the national policy of the UGC on August 6, 2020, pending the issue of orders.

The ongoing agitation of the teachers has entered its 20th day with cease work from February 18.

NNN