Tribal organizations under Coordination Committee of Tribal Organizations, Assam burn copies of Constitution ST (Amendment) Bill

Our Correspondent

Kokrajhar: Different tribal organizations under the banner of Coordination Committee of Tribal Organizations, Assam (CCTOA) burnt the copies of Constitution ST Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019 at ‘Bhelaghor’ near Railway Flyover in Kokrajhar on Tuesday protesting against the move of the Union government to include six advanced communities of Assam.

Talking to reporters, the general secretary of the ABSU Lawrence Islary said the BJP led Union government was going ahead to include the six advanced and highly populous communities of Assam in ST list despite massive opposition from existing tribals without assessing the bad impact on them. He said the tribal organizations of Assam have vehemently been opposing the move of the government to include six new communities which have no distinct identity and culture in ST list.

Islary said the BJP was playing politics on the issue for their short term political gains but the tribal people of Assam will not allow this anti-tribal stand of the BJP to become successful. He reiterated that the BJP was anti-tribal and always been the protector of people from outside. He warned that there will be no other option but to start massive mass movement against the Constitution ST Amendment Bill, 2019 in the days to come and defeat the mission of anti-tribal of BJP. He also said the Registrar General of India (RGI) has already rejected the proposal of inclusion of six communities as many as eight times but despite this fact, the BJP led Government is going ahead with the proposal for political interest.

Former president of the All Assam Tribal Sangha (AATS) Ranjit Kr Borgoyary said the existing tribal communities of Assam will lose all reserved quotas meant for them if advanced communities with large population are included in ST list. Most of these communities are advanced economically, politically, educationally and many of them are migrant community that never fulfill the criteria of being ST. He said all tribal communities must be united and come forward to oppose it by any means.

Many leaders of different tribal organizations took part in the burning of copies of Constitution ST Amendment Bill and shouted slogans against the Prime Minister, Home Minister and BJP.

Also read: Coordination Committee of the Tribal Organizations of Assam (CCTOA) to form new party to pursue tribal cause