The North East Students' Organisation (NESO) has expressed its discontentment over the border dispute between Assam and Mizoram.
A release by NESO said the unfortunate circumstances are due to the failure of the Assam and Mizoram governments to solve the long pending issue. An online meeting of NESO members from seven northeastern states on Wednesday has resolved that the talks between the two states should be conducted at the level of the chief ministers of the two states so as to bring a lasting and permanent solution to the situation, it added.
Secretary general of NESO, Sinam Prakesh Singh stated in the release that there is no improvement on the issue even though talks are initiated between the two states at the level of the chief secretaries.
NESO strongly opined that there should be normal and free flow of goods, materials and essential commodities between the two states. The meeting also resolved to oppose and condemn the recent statement of the Union Home Minister with regards to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the release said.
It further said that NESO once again reiterated its stiff opposition to the CAA which is clearly detrimental to the indigenous populace of the northeast region. Even though the case is pending in the Supreme Court of India, yet the constituent organisations of NESO are at full liberty to design their own course of agitation taking into account their respective ground situation, in coordination with NESO.
Due to the pandemic and the lockdown, many entrepreneurs and self-employed youths who are availing loans from various financial institutions have faced untold miseries, the release stated.
NESO has appealed to all financial institutions in the region to exempt monthly loan payments during the restricted and lockdown periods and extends the deadline to a further date so as to ensure that entrepreneurs and self-employed youths do not suffer in their struggle to make ends meet, it said.
“At present, all northeastern states are complying with the Union Ministry of Education directives to conduct examinations at all cost. However, certain anomalies were detected with regards to the online examination conducted. There are many areas in the northeast region which have very poor network connectivity and some are yet to be connected. As such, NESO highly recommends the respective governments and educational institutions to facilitate both online and offline mode of examinations so as to ensure that not a single student is left out of the examination process conducted in this pandemic,” said NESO in the release.
The release further stated that due to the present situation of COVID-19, the meeting also unanimously agreed to extend the tenure of the current executive council of NESO for another year.
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