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Imphal, May 19 : The All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur, called a dawn-to-dusk strike today in the five hill districts of the state demanding job quotas for tribal candidates in educational institutions putting a spanner in the government’s plan to start the first session of a newly established medical institute.

The union has warned of a protractedagitation if the government did now bow to its demand for 10 posts for tribal candidates in the new institute.

The Ibobi Singh government upgraded the state-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital at Porompat in Imphal East to a medical institute. The new institute is named Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences.

The state medical department plans to open the first session for the MBBS course with 100 students from August this year. The state government is waiting for a visit by a team from the Medical Council of India to get the final nod to start the session. The team will give the go-ahead after examining the infrastructure and staff position in the institute.

The health department has appointed 10 professors, 13 associate professors, 23 assistant professors and 33 senior resident teachers for 17 departments.

The students’ union had demanded that at least 10 posts of the teachers be reserved for the tribal candidates before the appointments were made. However, of the teachers appointed, only five are tribal candidates.

Today’s strike marked the beginning of a series of agitation by the students’ body.

“We had asked the director of the institute, A.D. Singh, to reserve at least 10 posts for tribal candidates. But our repeated requests fell on deaf ears,” the president of the student body, Thomas Taishya, said.

The general strike affected normal life in all the headquarters of the hill districts with shops and business establishments remaining closed. However, educational institutions were exempted from the purview of the strike.

Inter-state and inter-district bus and other commercial services were suspended. There was no report of any violence.

A leader of the student union said the union would intensify the agitation if the government remained indifferent to the demand.

Ibobi Singh government, however, is in no mood to succumb to the demands. “We need to appoint experts and experienced teachers. We appointed tribal candidates wherever possible. As it concerns with human lives we have to recruit the fittest,” health minister Pheiroijam Parijat Singh said. 

The minister said the team from the council would be here very soon to give the final nod for opening the session from this year.