Himanta Govt recomends for ST status to Moran and Motok

way2barak October 16: Himanta Biswa Sarma government is exploring a “step-by-step” approach of first forwarding recommendations to the Centre in favour of two of them, Moran and Motok, ahead of the Assam polls scheduled for next year.

The six communities seeking ST status are Tai Ahom, tea tribes or Adivasis, Moran, Motok, Chutia, and Koch-Rajbongshi. They are a part of the state’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) list at present, comprising around 27% of its population. Their demand for ST status gathers steam ahead of every state and national election, with Narendra Modi himself raising it while campaigning in Assam before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

With Assembly elections again on the horizon, organisations representing these communities have stepped up their efforts over the past month. In September, Moran, Motok, Koch-Rajbongshi, and Chutia outfits held large-scale demonstrations. On October 13, pressure groups representing the tea tribes held a mass demonstration in Dibrugarh, while Tai Ahom organisations are planning a demonstration in Dhemaji on October 19.

CM Sarma has said that a Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to examine the issue will place its recommendations before the Assembly on November 25, before forwarding the same to the Centre, and that the government is looking to find a “middle ground”. The principal opposition to this demand has come from the Co-ordination Committee of Tribal Organisations of Assam (CCTOA), which has representation from the Scheduled Tribes of Assam. According to the 2011 Census, tribals comprise 12.4% of the state’s population.

On Sunday, Sarma met with representatives of the major Motok outfits in Guwahati, days after chairing a similar meeting with Moran representatives in Dibrugarh. Motok and Moran representatives who attended these meetings told they had been told the government might move forward with their demand first and spend more time looking into the demands of the other four groups, which the existing ST communities are more strongly opposed to.

Cabinet Minister Pijush Hazarika told, “The existing ST representatives do not have an issue with ST status for the Morans and Motoks, but are objecting strongly against the rest. So, we might submit this in the report to the Central government and write that the discussions with the others remain ongoing. That way, we can move forward step by step… instead of the matter being stuck as a whole.”