Guwahati, Feb 7: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday exuded confidence that the Mising Autonomous Council would fulfill the hopes and aspirations of the members of the Mising community once it gets constitutional status.
“On January 1, the Cabinet meeting decided that the state government would send petition to the Centre to provide constitutional status to the Mising Autonomous Council,” the chief minister said while attending the 9th Mising Youth Festival hosted at Kareng Chapori near Bogibeel Bridge in Dhemaji district.
Sarma reiterated that the incumbent government has been striving hard to work towards preservation and furtherance of tribal communities’ culture and heritage.
He announced that the cultural affairs department of the state government would provide Rs one crore for organising the Mising Youth Festival every year from next year.
Lauding the Takam Mising Porin Kebang (TMPK) for playing the lead role in hosting the Mising Youth Festival, Sarma said that the Mising ethnic group was one of the earliest original inhabitants of the state.
“Arriving in Assam much before the Ahoms, the Mising community contributed greatly towards strengthening the composite Assamese identity,” he said.
The chief minister further recalled that members of the Mising community were appointed to high official positions by Ahoms which led to their gradual integration into the then kingdom’s administrative set-up.
“To accommodate efficient members of the Mising community in the Ahom bureaucratic set-up, posts such as Miri Handique, Miri Kataki, Miri Baruah, to name a few, were created by the Ahoms,” Sarma said.
“The Mising community’s saga of valour was on full display during the Battle of Saraighat and the Burmese invasion of Assam,” he recalled.