IMPHAL, Feb 15: Major General Binoy Poonen, General Officer Commanding of the 57 Mountain Division today appealed to the younger generations particularly the students to sit back and analysed the situation in Manipur to bring peace and harmony among the masses. General Poonen also appealed to be a Manipuri first and proud to be a Manipuri as well.
GOC Poonen was addressing a flagged-in gathering of the 6/8 Gorkha Rifles of Loktak Brigade sponsored 15-day national integration tour at the army auditorium at Leimakhong,about 20 km north of Imphal this morning.
“You all can be the future leaders of the beautiful state of Manipur,so sit down and analysed the situation besides studying hard,” GOC asked.“Many students are going outside the state as there’s no avenue for higher studies here. Why can’t this happen here in their own state.”
Appealing to compare the state with the rest of the country in the field of development too,the GOC observed that the state has been lagging behind in certain development sector due to insurgency,unemployment and corruption etc.
Twenty students comprising of four different communities-Meitei,Naga,Kuki and Meitei Pangals along with their four teachers were on a 15 day national integration tour from Ningthoukhong town in Manipur’s Bishnupur district to Delhi,Agra and Jaipur cities from January 30 to January 12 last where the team visited Red Fort,Humayun Tomb,Qutub Minar,Connaught Place,Delhi Metro in Delhi,Taj Mahal,Agra Fort and Army Cantonment at Agra and Ajmer Palace,Jantar mantar at Jaipur.
Surprisingly the team exclusively had a 30 minute interaction with the President Pratibha devi Singh Patil besides having an opportunity to have a 1 4 hour guided tour of the Rashtrapati Bhavan during the sojourn.
Two students—one boy and one girl, who took part in the tour also shared their experiences and feeling during the day’s flagged-in gathering.
According to the senior officers of the Loktak Brigade,almost all the 20 students which include 10 girls and 10 boys, selected through its four battalions under the brigade, were given an opportunity to have metro ride in Delhi not to speak of giving the experience of a train ride in their life time.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2012/02/maj-gen-wants-students-to-analyse-present-situation-in-state/