Assam CM holds talks with members of six communities awaiting ST status

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal held detailed discussions with the members of six communities on a gamut of issues here on Thursday evening and informed them that his government would prepare its proposal for submission to the Centre.

He said the proposal would be prepared after discussing with all the stakeholders to facilitate the granting of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the six communities, without affecting the rights and privileges of the existing ST communities.

Sonowal added that the government had introduced a bill for granting ST status to the six communities, after fulfilling the entire requirement from the Registrar General of India, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and the Union cabinet.

"This has reflected the government's sincerity in according ST status to the six communities," the chief minister said.

Sonowal also said a Group of Ministers (GoM) was constituted under Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to expedite the entire process to safeguard the language, culture and literature of the six communities.

The convener of the GoM, Chandan Brahma, also informed the members of the community at the meeting that the GoM would meet and discuss the issue with all the stakeholders from 28 January to 3 February to take it to its logical conclusion.

The six communities include Koch Rajbongshi, Tai Ahom, Chutiya, Matak, Moran and the state's tea tribes.

Minister for Labour and Welfare of Tea Tribes Pallab Lochan Das, Security Adviser Ranjit Kumar Pachananda, MP Rameswar Teli, MLAs Bolin Chetia, Terosh Goala, Chief Secretary Alok Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Home and Political Kumar Sanjay Krishna, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Lohiya and several other senior officers of the government were present at the meeting.

At another meeting with the Moran Students' Union and other organisations of the Moran community, Sonowal discussed a host of issues and decided to hold a meeting with the GoM to ensure the awarding of ST status to the Morans, without affecting the present rights and privileges that the people of the community were enjoying.

He said the Centre had already introduced a bill in the Rajya Sabha and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had spoken in both houses of Parliament about it.

The meeting decided to earmark a special budgetary provision for the preservation and beautification of the heritages and emblems of the Moran community, besides conducting special coaching classes for the students belonging to the community for taking examinations conducted by the Assam Public Service Commission, along with providing scholarship to them.

The meeting also decided that a special drive would be undertaken within three months for giving land pattas (deeds) to the landless people belonging to the Moran community and the minister in-charge of revenue was given the special responsibility to carry it forward.