GUWAHATI, June 20 – Exasperated at what it said was the dilly-dallying tactics of the State Government, the All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam (AASAA) today served an ultimatum to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to grant Schedule Tribes (ST) status to all the Adivasi communities living in the State, failing which the Adivasis would boycott the Congress party. “Assam is the only State in the country where the Adivasis do not enjoy scheduled status. This has been a gross discrimination that needs to be rectified at the earliest,” AASAA president Justin Lakra told mediapersons today.
Lakra said the State Government has been dithering on the issue of granting ST status to the Adivasis over one pretext or the other. “Earlier, it cited the presence of the BJP at the Centre for this, but now it has its own governments both at the Centre and the State and it is imperative that it proves its goodwill to the Adivasis,” he said and added that the Adivasi people have given the State Government a timeframe of two years within which to complete the whole process of scheduling them.
“Otherwise,” Lakra said, “we will no longer vote for the Congress, which is a unanimous decision.” The 40 lakh-odd Adivasi populace in the State has traditionally been a Congress vote bank since independence. The AASAA submitted a list of tribes and castes that are enjoying scheduled status in different States, and called for their same position in Assam as well. The list had 42 tribes and 52 castes. The AASAA also demanded that the State Government, in its recommendation to the Centre regarding granting of ST status, refer the names of the Adivasi tribes correctly, so as to do away with any confusion. “Last time the State Government had wrongly named us as ‘tea and ex-tea communities’ and this came in the way of our recognition as tea is related to a occupation and does not fulfil any criterion for scheduling,” it said.
An AASAA delegation would leave for New Delhi on July 10 to move the Prime Minister, the AICC president and the Tribal Affairs Minister over their demands. The AASAA, however, was positive that the State Government would show the urgency this time round. “We met Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi yesterday and he gave us complete assurance that all the formalities for the purpose are being worked out,” Lakra said.
Other major demands of the organisation included relief and rehabilitation for some two lakh inmates languishing in hopelessly inadequate camps bereft of any basic amenities in Kokrajhar and Dhubri districts, settlement of the bonus issue of the tea gardens at 20 per cent, revival of the tea gardens under the Assam Tea Corporation, a special development package for the Adivasis and job reservation for members of the community.
The AASAA said since 1996-97, the inmates of the relief camps have been passing their days in sheer poverty and drudgery though the Government had promised to rehabilitate them in a couple of years. “They are given ration for ten days after every two months and the camps do not have any semblance of hygiene, forget about medical facilities,” it said, adding that the children did not have any access to education either.