Reserve 102 Assembly seats for original ethnic inhabitants: JSPA

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Janagosthiya Samannay Parishad, Asom (JSPA), a conglomerate of 21 indigenous Muslim communities of Asam, has demanded reservation of 102 Assembly seats for original ethnic inhabitants of those constituencies in the State.

“There have been demographic changes in many Assembly constituencies due to migration of illegal Bangladeshis to the State. Out of 126 constituencies 24 are now reserved for SC and ST communities. For the sake of safeguarding indigenous people of Assam we want reservation of the rest 102 constituencies for original ethnic inhabitants,” JSPA chief convener Muminul Aowal said.

Addressing a press conference at Dispur Press Club here on Friday, Aowal also raised the demand that the ethnic communities of Assam that have been bearing the brunt because of infiltrators, especially Muslim infiltrators, should be given direct constitutional safeguards under Clause 6 of the Assam Accord. He said no cut-off date should be fixed while according constitutional safeguard to these communities.

Emphasizing on a survey of the indigenous Muslims of Assam, Aowal appealed to the State government to conduct a survey of Goriya, Moria, Deshi and others in 2020. He said Goriya, Moria and Deshi have originally ethnic identities instead of their present religious identity (Islam). “Nearly 80 per cent people of these ethnic communities in fact converted to Islam in between 1206 and 1826,” he said. Terming the Assam Accord as a suicidal move for the people of Assam, Aowal said the Accord instead of fixing 1951 as the cut-off year for detection of illegal foreigners made 1971 for the same. “So we had to accept the burden of illegal Bangladeshis for 20 additional years,” he said.

Aowal also claimed that amendments of the Citizenship Act in 1987 and 1992 by the then Congress regime at the Centre also facilitated massive number of illegal Bangladeshis to sneak into the State. The JSPA will organize an ethnic convention in the city on January 18 to discuss various burning issues of the State, especially ethnic communities.

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