Students plan to hand over textbooks

Manipur students would hand over their textbooks to protest the state Govt's failure to completely withdraw the Armed Forces Act.

Security measures were beefed up on Wednesday in view of threat by hundreds of students to hand over textbooks to Manipur Governor SS Sidhu and Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh to protest the state Government's failure to completely withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from the state, official sources said.

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Para-military forces were deployed at Raj Bhavan and Chief Minister's bungalow in view of the situation, the sources said.

Although indefinite curfew was relaxed from 4 am to 9 pm in Imphal and Greater Imphal areas, prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC were in force.

The Manipur Government on Tuesday night ordered all educational institutions to remain closed on Wednesday to pre-empt students from handing over their text books.

The Chief Minister had on Tuesday appealed to the students to call of their proposed plan to hand over the books.

Three students organisations, All Manipur Students Union, Manipur Students Federation and Democratic Students Association of Manipur had earlier called for handing over of text books to protest the failure to remove the act and against 'brutal' police action on students during the current agitation.

The three students' bodies also appealed to students and teachers to pay floral tributes to student leader Pebam Chitaranjan, who self immolated on August 15 to press for removal of the act.

It also urged them to observe two minutes silence at their respective institutions.