Haflong: Demanding immediate bifurcation of the erstwhile NC Hills district with a Separate Autonomous Council as per the proposed map, Indigenous People’s Forum staged a sit-in demonstration in front the office of the District Commissioner on Thursday.
During the sit-in-demonstration, IPF members were demanding for immediate bifurcation of the district. Later they submitted a representation to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma through the Dima Hasao District Commissioner.
The representation signed by president, working president and general secretary maintained that it was quite disappointing that they have been kept in identity crisis under ever increasing Dimasas’ discrimination and suppression for the last one and half decades.
Earlier, they made a joint declaration for intensifying their democratic movement on August 9.
According to the majority of their previously submitted representations, the Indigenous Hill Tribals (Non-Dimasas) have never demanded the establishment of a separate administrative and political framework for themselves due to the unequal political representations in the NC Hills Autonomous Council, which is the source of developments and other issues. They have also never demanded to be separated from the Dimasas, even after they launched several Ethnic Cleansing Operations against us, including those against the Hmars in 2003, the Karbis in 2005, and the Zeme Nagas in 2009. However, the Dimasas began demanding a separate administrative and political system for the restoration of their identities when the district was renamed as "Dima Hasao," giving them exclusive possession of the district.
However, they will no longer want a Separate Autonomous territory with a Separate Autonomous Council if their identities were restored, even now, by returning the territory to its former name—North Cachar Hills. If it was not practical to restore the district's former name, then, in accordance with their suggested map and the aforementioned constitutional provisions for the protection of their identities, immediately establish independent political and administrative structures for them.
In order to uphold the provision "promoting equal status and opportunities for all," which is enshrined in the Preamble to the noble Constitution of India, they would therefore humbly and earnestly pray for the immediate settlement of their demand for the division of the former N. C. Hills District into a separate Autonomous Council, as per their proposed map under clause (c) of the Sub-Paragraph (3) of Paragraph 1 and the Sub-Paragraph (1) of Paragraph 2 of Articles 244(2) & 275(1) of the Sixth Schedule to the Indian Constitution.
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