Manipur: Students seek restoration of internet services, lock up government offices

 ANSAM president M. Luikang Luckson says they have extended their two-day picketing of government offices till Wednesday

Umanand Jaiswal, TT, Guwahati, 26.10.23 : Government offices in Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur have not been able to function since Tuesday because of picketing by the All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur (ANSAM) seeking the immediate restoration of internet services in peaceful areas of the state.

This is the second time this month that students have protested the continuing blanket ban on mobile internet services in the state.

The Senapati District Students’ Association, a unit of the ANSAM, had imposed an economic blockade on the critical Dimapur-Senapati-Imphal National Highway on October 5 and 6 protesting the extension of the internet ban in Senapati, a Naga-majority district, where there is “no law and order situation”.

The ongoing ANSAM protest has expanded to other Nag-inhabited areas and is only likely to intensify in the days to come.

Unhappy with the continuing blanket ban on internet services, which has affected the student community and others who depend on online connectivity for medical, banking and professional needs, ANSAM members launched its picketing at government offices on Tuesday.

They have locked up the entrance gates and even put up posters that read “Office Closed Due To Internet Ban-ANSAM”.

The overwhelming sentiment among students in Naga-inhabited areas is that the blanket ban on mobile internet services even when the unrest was “confined” to specific areas was unjustified and infringed on their basic rights. The Naga community, which lives mostly in the hills like the Kuki-Zo, have remained neutral in the ongoing conflict.

Internet services were banned after clashes erupted between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities on May 3 following a solidarity rally in the hill districts opposing the ST demand of the Meitei community.

Mobile internet services were completely restored in the state after 143 days on October 23 owing to an “improved” law and order situation but were reimposed after three days, on October 26, following widespread and sustained protests in Imphal Valley after photographs of two Meitei students, who had gone missing from Imphal on July 6, surfaced on social media on September 25.

The ANSAM has been demanding that the BJP-led state government immediately lift the internet shutdown and “restore internet connectivity in the peace (ful) area of the state”.

Their other demand was an immediate declaration of the results of the interview held in September 2021 for the appointment of 190 posts of assistant professors in government colleges.

ANSAM president M. Luikang Luckson told The Telegraph that they had extended their two-day picketing of government offices till Wednesday.

The student organisation had on October 17 announced a two-day picketing programme from Tuesday if the government failed to respond to its twin demands within five days.

“Office functioning has been affected in Naga-inhabited areas. It has been effective in Senapati, Ukhrul, Chandel and Tamenglong districts. We have extended the office picketing by a day, till Wednesday, since there has been no response from the government,” Luckson said.

Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh had said on October 18 that mobile internet services would be restored within the next few days because he understood the problems faced by the public because of the ban. However, there has been no withdrawal.