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| Students of government schools gather at a ground in Tuengsang before marching towards the deputy commissioner’s office. Telegraph picture |
Jorhat, Nov. 13: A
strike called by the Eastern Naga Students Federation (ENSF) to protest
the non-fulfilment of their demands has partially paralysed four
districts in eastern Nagaland.
The students’ group launched its agitation
on November 5 but today it closed down all the government offices and
stopped movement of government vehicles.
But shops and business establishments were open and private vehicles were also plying.
The students have been demanding regular
implementation of the midday meal scheme in eastern Nagaland schools and
Anganwadi centres and recruitment of teachers to fill up vacant posts.
The strike by the students of these four
districts — Mon, Tuengsang, Longleng and Kiphire — has come at a time
when the people there, under the banner of Eastern Nagaland People’s
Organisation (ENPO), have been demanding a separate state, alleging
step-motherly attitude by the government.
The total area of eastern Nagaland is
8,154 square km and it has Myanmar to the east, Arunachal Pradesh to the
north and Assam in the west.
The general secretary of ENSF, Honang M. Zessuhu, told The Telegraph over phone that if the demands of the students were not met by Monday, they would intensify their agitation.
He said the government schools in the
eastern Nagaland districts were in a dilapidated state yet the
government has not taken any initiative to upgrade them.
“There are over a thousand posts of
teachers lying vacant in the schools of the four districts but the
government has not taken any step to fill these posts. The children are
facing a lot of hardship,” Honang said.
He said the midday meal scheme has not
been implemented in the schools and Anganwadi centres in the four
districts and students are offered midday meal only once or twice during
the whole year. “Its like a picnic time for the students when midday
meal is served in the schools,” he added.
During the first day of the agitation on
November 5, students of the government schools had marched to the deputy
commissioners’ offices in the four districts and demanded that they be
provided midday meal every day. “The students submitted memoranda to the
deputy commissioners on empty paper plates as a mark of protest,” the
student leader said.
Honang said a representative of the state
government has contacted the ENSF and was assured of a discussion next
Monday regarding the demands. “If we do not get a written assurance on
Monday from the state government, we will intensify our agitation,” he
said.
Lack of quality education, accessibility,
training and exposure of the people inhabiting the four eastern
districts has been cited as the main reasons by the ENPO for its demand
for a separate state.
Frontier Nagaland is the name the ENPO has
chosen for the homeland of Konyak, Phom, Sangtam, Khiamniungan,
Yimchunger and Chang tribes inhabiting these four districts.