SHILLONG, Aug 3: Raising their voice against fundamentalist groups operating in Northeast, especially Assam, North East Students Organisation (NESO), the apex student body of the region, on Thursday, announced protest across all Northeastern state capitals on August, as it took cognizance of different issues in the region comprising implementation of Inner Line Permit (ILP), influx of foreign nationals, implementation of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), AFSPA, etc.
This was announced at a meeting in Guwahati, Assam, after which, NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa said that the meeting discussed a host of issues ranging from infiltration, unemployment, passing of CAA, and the need to implement ILP in the Northeastern states.
Jyrwa informed that the three-hour-long protests will be held to shed light on the concerns with regard to the issues affecting the indigenous people of the region.
Talking about unemployment, which according to him has become a major problem in the region, Jyrwa said
that the Northeast should be declared as a special economic zone and 100 per cent of the C and D category jobs in all the central government offices in the region should be reserved for the local and indigenous people.
He also said that the Northeastern states should be the economic hub under the Act East Policy and not a mere corridor for trade and commerce with the South Asian counties.
Demanding immediate and complete withdrawal of CAA, he said that NESO has already filed a petition in the Supreme Court against CAA and the last hearing was held in January 2020 after which they are still waiting for fresh dates.