DOOMDOOMA: The tea-tribes people of the surrounding areas and tea gardens came out in large numbers and assembled at Doomdooma town field on Sunday afternoon to renew their demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and other political demands.
They defied the prohibitory order of the Tinsukia District Magistrate issued U/S 163 of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 to debar people from attending ‘Bikhal Gana Samabekh’ organized by some unknown organisation as “in the banners and publicity materials of such meeting the name of the organizing entity has not been disclosed.”
Although in the aforesaid order it was stated, “Neither any individual not any organisation has approached the undersigned clarifying the purpose of carrying out such a public meeting.” The leaders of the Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA), All Assam Adivasi Students’ Association (AASAA), Chah Janagosthiya Jatiya Mahasabha (CJJM), Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) and Bhartiya Chah Mazdoor Sangha (BCMS) took part in the rally. They were highly critical of the State and the Central government for not according ST status to the tea-tribes community of Assam.
The leaders also demanded rights over land and other political rights by saying that they did not acquire any rights over the land although they were living in the tea garden quarters for generations.
The leaders decried the vote bank politics of the political parties over the years. So they vowed to launch a united struggle for their rights from now onwards and teach the ruling BJP a good lesson in the coming Panchayat election and in the forthcoming Assam State Assembly election of 2026. Although the rally is somewhat peculiar in nature in the face of prohibitory order in that neither any formal permission were sought nor the names of the organisers were disclosed before the administration, yet their demands rented the sky of Doomdooma after a long gap. However what is intriguing, none of the aforesaid organisations had any formal discussions among themselves.
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