GUWAHATI: The ongoing crisis in Manipur University, arising out of the demand by students as well as teachers to sack vice chancellor Adya Prasad Pandey, to continue for now. Chief Minister N Biren Singh and some of his ministerial colleagues held a meeting with the leaders of protesting students and teachers on Tuesday but failed to break the ice.
The protestors stuck to their guns, making it amply clear that they would not withdraw the agitation till the VC resigned. "The Manipur University Students' Union (MUSU) and the Manipur University Teachers' Association (MUTA) had a meeting with a state government delegation led by the Chief Minister. However, there was no concrete development," MUSU president Dayaman Mayanglambam told reporters emerging from the meeting.
He said the state government had assured the protestors that it would exert pressure on the Central government to meet the demands.
"We will continue our agitation till the demands are fulfilled," Mayanglambam categorically stated. Two days ago, an all-party meeting had resolved to urge Pandey to step down. The VC is, however, in no mood to resign. Meanwhile, Internet and mobile SMS services have remained suspended across the state.
The MUSU had launched the protests in the first week of June demanding the VC's resignation. In due course, the MUTA lent its support to MUSU. They levelled a series of charges against the VC which include financial misappropriation and not filling up key positions that of a regular registrar, examination controller, librarian and curator etc.
To resolve the crisis, the Ministry of Human Resources Development had constituted two fact-finding committees but the varsity fraternity rejected them. It insists that the VC has to go. The protestors reiterated that VC's removal was a "sine quo non to precede" any intervention to resolve the present crisis.