By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: A delegation of the Khasi-Jaintia community based at Barak Valley in Assam, led by KSU Barak Valley Circle and the Barak Valley Khasi-Jaintia Development Council Demand Committee, is currently in the city to seek the support of the KSU central body and other local NGOs of the State and its people to pressurize the Assam Government to sanction facilities to the minority group based there.
According to the vice president of the KSU Barak Valley Circle, Comely Gassah, the delegation has met the Assam Chief Minister, Governor and the Minister in charge of Welfare of Plain Tribes & Backward Classes and appraised them of the problems faced by the Khasi-Jaintia people in the three districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi which do not fall under any autonomous district councils.
Briefing the media in Shillong here on Wednesday, Gassah said “The Khasi-Jaintia community of Barak Valley continuously suffers deprivation – socially, economically and politically – due to the faulty policies of various preceding governments.”
Gassah informed that the Khasi-Jaintia population in the three district stands at 96,000, and they have been living in Barak Valley since time immemorial.
“Unfortunately we are being excluded from all types of socio-economic, political and cultural development and as such, the people are are utterly backward and at the lowest level of human development index in Assam,” he said.
Sebastian Pakyntein, president of demand committee, said, “We are no longer the minority group but due to lack of education and exposure, we are left unattended by the Assam government.”
“We had appealed to the Assam government for recognition as Scheduled Tribes but were denied the same,” he said.
The delegation also informed that in order to preserve the Khasi language, they have appealed the Assam government to facilitate introduction of Khasi at the primary level in all Khasi dominated schools in conjunction with the Meghalaya Board as an alternative medium of language.