Shillong, Oct 29: Hundreds of students under the umbrella of North Eastern Students' Organisation today demonstrated outside the Raj Bhawan urging the Centre to take steps to stop influx of people in the region and to provide amenities to the pupils hailing from the region. Wearing black badges and carrying placards, the students sat on an hour-long dhrana and later submitted a memorandum to Governor M M Jacob urging him to take up the issues with the Centre.
Afterwards, President of Khasi Students Union, which led today's demonstration, Samuel Jyrwa said the governor assured the delegation that the issues will be taken up with the Centre and also in the next North Eastern Council's meeting.
Besides demanding a white paper on the Centre's comprehensive plan to check influx, the memorandum included setting up of libraries in every district of the Northeast, constructing hostels for the students in the four metros among others.
Today's dharna, which formed a part of the NESO's agitation programme in all the north eastern state capitals, was represented by students bodies from Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur and Garo Hills area of Meghalaya in addition to KSU.
Student leaders carried placards which read "we demand demilitarisation of North East", "we demand non-application of Indo-Nepal Treaty of Friendship of 1950 in North East", and "constructing hostels for North East students in all the metros".
The NESO was holding similar agitation in other parts of the region.
Bureau Report