Imphal, July 31 : Life-saving drugs are running out in Manipur because of two indefinite economic blockades imposed on its two national highways.
The All-Tribal Students Union, Manipur, had imposed an indefinite blockade on the Imphal-Kohima and Imphal-Jiribam highways on July 15, demanding an amendment in the job reservation policy for tribals and finalisation of a site for the proposed Indira Gandhi Tribal University.
The Senapati District Students Association also imposed an indefinite blockade on the same route on July 26 to protest against the government’s failure to repair the Imphal-Kohima highway.
Barring a daylong relaxation on July 27 to allow trucks to reach Imphal, the organisations have not allowed any supply truck to pass Senapati district through which the Imphal-Kohima highway passes.
The Regional Institute of MedicalSciences here today reported that it had run out of its stock of cotton and other first aid materials.
“The life-saving drugs will barely last for a week if fresh stocks do not come,” the institute’s medical superintendent Y. Mohen said. He has asked the storekeeper to contact suppliers and replenish stock by collecting medicines from the market. “Given Manipur’s situation, where violence is taking place every hour, we are worried that we may not be able to perform operations in emergency cases,” he added.
“Some medicines are no longer available in the market, but emergency medicines and life-saving drugs are still present. Manipur has one week’s stock of medicine,” a spokesman for the Manipur Druggists and Chemists Association said.
Sources said the government was unable to amend the Manipur Vacancies and Reservation Act because of certain technicalities. A source in the students’ union said the government had not approached it for negotiation.
State public works minister K. Ranjit Singh today inspected the condition of the road up to Mao, on Manipur’s border with Nagaland. He said road repairs would start this week and appealed to the Senapati student’s union to call off the blockade.
Education minister L. Jayentakumar today inspected a plot for the proposed Indira Gandhi Hill University.
