Mainstream India could at least share on their FB walls,please? Ngangbam Indrakanta Singh http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150721/jsp/northeast/story_32756.jsp#.Va4UMMsVgmw Imphal, July 20: Students and teachers of Mission Blind School today marched towards the chief minister's official residence here and accused him of being indifferent towards the students.
Mission Blind School is the only operative blind school in the hill districts. The students and teachers of the school, located at Heikakpokpi in Chandel district, have been demanding that the school be upgraded to a full-fledged government institution. Shouting slogans, the protesters marched towards chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh's residence. Security forces blocked them in front of Nupi Lal Memorial Complex, which is about 150 metres from the residence gate. They insisted on meeting the chief minister saying they would not budge till they met him. Angkham Maring, general secretary of the school's student union, said, "The government's silence indicates its lack of concern for our plight. If the government cared for us, it would have responded positively and met our demand." The blind school is a private co-educational primary residential one, founded in February 2003. The school has 55 students and 13 teachers. According to the principal of the school, K. Pareng Kom, the school does not charge fees from the students. The Assam Rifles has been assisting in the school's maintenance since 2005. "Till date we are running the school with the help of NGOs and public donations. However, we face various hardships. The teachers have not been paid for five years," the principal said. The students had been organising hunger strikes since June 23. They attempted to storm the Assembly complex on July 1#before they were stopped by the police. "The state has remained deaf to our cries despite repeated verbal assurances to upgrade our school to a government school or provide us grants," Pareng Kom said. "Please fulfil our demands. We want to learn like others. The dropout rate is pretty high. The government is pretending to be blind to our grievances. We will not retreat until we meet Ibobi Singh. We will die here until we our demand is met," Maring said. They later dispersed. -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
