IMPHAL, July 24: Expressing anguish at the disparity between the hill areas and the valley area of the State in educational facilities, ATSUM president Maun Tombing stated that only 17 regular lecturers and 259 contractual lecturers are manning 14 Government Higher Secondary Schools in the hill districts.
He said, whereas 434 regular lecturers and 455 contractual lecturers are engaged in imparting knowledge in 25 Government Higher Secondary Schools in the valley.
He was addressing a seminar on the problem and challenges of tribals in Manipur at the Tribal Research Institute today as the president.
Earlier, he described ATSUM as a conglomeration of the apex hill based student’s union of Manipur which has not only provided selfless yeoman service but has always tried to address the issues of tribals.
Alleging that there are anomalies in the formation of School Management and Development Committees, he said: “Only a DI controls the SMDCs in the hill districts. Standard bidding norms prescribed by National Rural Roads Development Agency forbid undervalued quoting of tenders for PMGSY. Therefore, PMGSY-IX phase which has been e-tendered at a nominal rate should be invalidated. Any PMGSY work of the IX phase will be banned in all the hill districts of Manipur.”
Lamenting the pathetic condition of health service in the hill districts, Tombing said there are 20 to 30 thousand villagers still facing health problems as there are no doctors in the PHC etc.
All the ADCs barring Churachandpur and Chandel are functioning from Khuman Lampak, Imphal citing threats as alibi, he said, adding that ADC member of the hills areas have not been able to go to their respective districts and function even after more than three years of the election in 2010.
He said that ROTO-I was launched in June last year 2013 June while ROTO-II was launched in October. If the government doesn’t take any positive steps on tribal issues soon, ROTO-III will be launched in the State, he added.
Assistant professor Dr Angam Gangmei of JNIMS presented a paper on problems and challenges of tribals with regard to the health care in the hills of Manipur whereas social worker Romeo Bungdon, the another resource person at the seminor, presented a paper on problems and challenges of the tribal with regard to land, forest and its resource during the one-day seminar.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/07/atsum-deplores-disparity-between-hills-and-valley/