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Manipur shuts all educational institutions from Aug 20 to 23 amid unrest
Manipur has ordered all schools, colleges and universities shut from August 20 to 23, citing the prevailing law and order situation amid a JFD shutdown.
The Manipur government on Wednesday ordered the closure of all educational institutions across the state from August 20 to 23 in view of the prevailing law and order situation, according to an official order.
The government order was issued by the commissioner-cum-secretary to the Government of Manipur, in which commissioner of education (school) Ningthoujam Geoffrey said that the closure would cover all schools affiliated with the Board of Secondary Education Manipur, Council of Higher Secondary Education Manipur, Central Board of Secondary Education or otherwise.
The order, which said the decision was taken “in view of the prevailing law and order situation in the State,” also applies to colleges, higher education institutes and universities under government, aided and unaided sectors.
The order further said that all deputy commissioners, zonal education officers and directors concerned had been asked to circulate the order to schools and institutions under their jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, normal life remained paralysed across several valley districts in Manipur on Wednesday as the 48-hour shutdown called by the Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (JFD), a Meitei group, continued over its demand that the Census be conducted only after an NRC is done.
Meitei groups have been pressing for an NRC to identify undocumented migrants who settled in Manipur after 1951 from neighbouring countries and pose a threat to the state’s original inhabitants. Kuki organisations have accused Meiteis of trying to label them all as undocumented immigrants. In neighbouring Assam, an NRC was updated in 2019 to identify undocumented immigrants who came to the state after 1971.
As part of the agitation, the students’ wing of JFD has held a series of agitations over the last few days, including shutting down the Directorate of Census Operations office located in Imphal East and disrupting training centres for enumerators and supervisors involved in the Census process.
Meanwhile, in a separate government order issued on Wednesday, charge officer/Sub-Divisional Officer, Lilong, Imphal West, Moirangthem Priyaroshni Devi said that “all the appointees of supervisors, enumerators and field trainer regarding Census Training Programme stand cancelled.”
