On his last working day as the chairperson of the Manipur Human Rights Commission on Friday, Justice UB Saha disposed of four cases including three cases received during his visits to Churachandpur.
Among the four cases, one was from T Tunhaulian Zou, president, Medicos Union and Niangngaihlian, general secretary, Eimi Medicos Union, Churachandpur who complained that about 75 (seventy-five) seats in medical colleges in Imphal namely, RIMS (10 ST seats), JNIMS (40 ST seats) and SHIJA (25 ST seats) are inaccessible to the present MBBS aspirants belonging to Kuki Zomi Hmar Community and the upcoming batch of 2024 will also be unable to access the said colleges.
During the 2023 NEET counselling, one ST candidate from Churachandpur opted for JNIMS, Imphal, however failed to fulfil the admission process as he was unable to present himself there in person due to the barrier created by the May conflict last year which resulted in losing his seat altogether, the complainants stated.
The complainants requested the commission for the authority to enable the candidates from Kuki Zomi Hmar Community to get admit in institute like RIMS, JNIMS and SHIJA Medical College, as the candidates from Imphal have no problem in getting admitted to the institute in Churachandpur i.e. CMC. Once admitted they can continue their courses at Churachandpur Medical College, they stated.
Therefore, they sought the commission’s intervention to remedy this anomaly at the earliest as the NEET First round of counselling will commence on 27th August, 2024.
The MHRC stated that the demands of the students from Churachandpur is regarding the ST quota and the same is policy matter. The commission cannot direct the authority in a particular way to distribute the seats, more so, the Schedule Tribe seats are not only for a particular community of Schedule Tribe but for all the community of Schedule Tribe, the commission added.
“As our heart is with the complainants, President Eimi Medicos Union and General Secretary, Eimi Medicos Union, we think it would meet justice if the petition is considered as a representation and same may be looked into by the authority and communicating their decisions to the complainants will serve the purpose accordingly. We are sending this petition to the Commissioner (Health) and Commissioner (Education), Government of Manipur to examine the matter and also inform the complainants through the DC Churachandpur regarding the result of their representation/complaint”, said the MHRC.
Another case was regards to transferring the students of Dental College for which the chief secretary, government of Manipur, Vineet Joshi, has already written a letter to Apurva Chandra, secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, government of India.
As the matter is pending before the Supreme Court, the commission is not in a position to pass any order as prayed; moreover, the same has been taken up by the chief secretary, government of Manipur. Hence, the commission sent a complaint to the chief secretary as well as to the commissioner, Health and Family, government of Manipur to examine the matter and place before a committee to redress the grievance of the complainant with human touch being, that they belonged to indigenous community.
Meanwhile, a case has been returned to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with a request to correct the typographical mistake in the order, so that the same can be corrected and rectified by the NHRC and sent back to the commission for deciding the matter.
