Reservation of proposed Chamaria constituency for SC demanded

BOKO: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on June 20 released a delimitation draft of the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies of Assam. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has proposed to abolish the former Chaigaon constituency and replace it with the 27th Samaria constituency. The Schedule Caste (SC) people living in the Samaria area are outraged by this. The SC people held a protest meeting at Ram Saraswati playground in Samaria on Friday and staged a sit-in at the office of the Samaria Revenue Circle Officer. They chanted slogans like ‘Reserve 27th Samaria constituency for SCs’, ‘Our demands are justified demands’ and ‘No SC No Rest’. The proposed 27th Samaria constituency will be formed by merging the existing Samaria block of Boko constituency and Garaimari block of Chaigaon constituency.

However, the proposed Samaria constituency has a higher SC population than the SC population living in the existing Boko constituency reserved for SCs. Therefore, the protesters are requesting the Government of Assam, the Government of India and the Election Commission of India to reserve the proposed 27th Samaria constituency for the Scheduled Castes. After the protest, the protesters handed over a memorandum to the Chief Minister of Assam, Election Commission of India, District Deputy Commissioner and Chairman of the Assam Constituency Redetermination Committee through the Chamaria Revenue Circle Officer.

One protester Sanjay Sarkar said, “The Assam government talks about protecting the Assamese people, this government talks about protecting the existence of indigenous people and the SCs have nothing to say in this regard. I support it. The proposed constituency includes Samaria Xatra, Malibari Satra, Malncha Satra and Dari Satra. The land of these xatras has already been encroached and this land has not been encroached by indigenous Assamese. These xatras must be preserved and to preserve the proposed Samaria constituency No. 27, it must be reserved for the Scheduled Castes. Therefore, the Government of Assam and the Chief Minister of Assam should reconsider this matter.”

It is to be mentioned that, there have been mixed reactions in different parts of Assam after the publication of the constituency draft. Meanwhile, the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council welcomed the draft by taking out rallies on NH-17 in Boko in Kamrup district and Dudhnai in Goalpara district and requested the Election Commission to uphold the draft permanently. The present Boko and Chaygaon constituencies were cut off to form the Chamaria constituency.

The protesters also mentioned that the former minister of Assam Dr. Kamala Kalita also said that the proposed Chamaria constituency should be reserved for the Scheduled Castes. Protesters also mentioned that on June 27, All Assam Tribal Sangha Secretary Aditya Khakhlari said the reservation for scheduled tribes has been increased from 16 to 19 in the current draft. On the other hand, Khakhlari said that the seats reserved for SCs have been reduced to general seats. For example, there are very few SC people in Naobaicha and Dimoria constituencies, but two seats have been reserved for SCs. Therefore, the protesters demanded that the proposed reservation for this constituency be cut off and the proposed Samaria constituency be included.

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