Guwahati, Jan 9: The Indigenous People’s Forum (IPF) has reiterated its demand for creation of a separate autonomous district with a separate autonomous council for the indigenous hill tribes of erstwhile North Cachar (NC) Hills district.
Addressing mediapersons in Haflong on Monday, the forum’s general secretary L. Hlima Keivom urged the Assam government to take immediate action towards fulfillment of its long pending demand, which also includes creation of a separate assembly constituency.
“It has been 12 years since the Indigenous People’s Forum started demanding for the creation of a separate autonomous district with a separate autonomous council for the down-trodden indigenous hill tribes of the erstwhile N.C. Hills district because of the renaming of the district (to Dima Hasao) on March 30, 2010,” Keivom said.
Ever since the demand was made, there have been several rounds of meetings on the issue with the state government.
“A task force set up earlier had submitted its report on November 16, 2011, stating the feasibility for creation of a separate district and recommended for setting up of two separate, independent autonomous district councils for both Dimasa and non-Dimasa groups of people, but with no tangible step taken towards its implementation,” he said.
Further, an announcement was made for creation of a separate new district during the Budget session in February, 2019.
“Thereafter, it was decided in the meeting under the chairmanship of the chief minister on January 23, 2022 to the effect that the GoM (group of ministers) would look into the economic opportunities of all the ethnic groups of Dima Hasao district and submit its report within two months. However, there was no follow-up action till date,” Keivom said.
He further stated that a meeting with the GoM was held on September 11, 2022, where it was decided to constitute a boundary demarcation commission to be headed by a retired Judge of a High Court or a retired IAS officer.
“However, to our astonishment, when the minutes of the meeting came out, the decisions of the meeting emerged to be otherwise. So, it is our humble request to the concerned authority that the boundary demarcation commission be constituted without further loss of time as was resolved at the meeting,” the forum’s general secretary said.
“However, if the government remains insincere in bringing out a solution to our problem, we shall be compelled to stage a democratic agitation,” he warned.