Council formation before Assam Assembly polls: Karbi bodies warn of agitation

STAFF REPORTER

Guwahati: The Scheduling Demand Coordination Committee of Karbis (Mikirs) and several associated Karbi social organisations have announced a mass democratic movement if their long-pending demands—including rectified Scheduled Tribe (Hills) certificates, amendment of the Assam Panchayat Act, and formation of the Karbi Autonomous Welfare Council—are not fulfilled before the upcoming Assam Assembly elections.

The decision was taken at a crucial meeting held on November 13, 2025, at Saraighat Bazar, Sonapur, where the groups expressed deep dissatisfaction over what they termed prolonged government inaction.

The Karbi/Mikir community, one of the oldest indigenous groups of Northeast India, resides across Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Mizoram. While Karbis in all other states enjoy Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, only those residing within the Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao Autonomous Districts are recognised as ST (Hills) in Assam.

Nearly 4 lakh Karbis living outside the autonomous districts—spread across Kamrup, Marigaon, Nagaon, Hojai, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Golaghat, Lakhimpur, Cachar and other districts—remain deprived of constitutional ST status, leading to decades of exclusion from education, employment and political reservation.

Though the Assam government issued a temporary notification in 1982 allowing issuance of ST(H) certificates, these certificates are not recognized by the Centre, provide limited benefits, and do not grant political reservation. Karbi groups claim that this has blocked their entry into elite institutes like IITs and IIMs and prevented selection into all-India services such as IAS, IPS, and IFS.

The organisations also alleged that sections 3.5 and 3.6 of the 2021 Memorandum of Settlement (MoS)—which promised scheduling of Karbis outside the autonomous districts and the formation of the Karbi Autonomous Welfare Council—remain unimplemented even four years after signing.

A high-level meeting with Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma at Diphu on April 17, 2025, reportedly ended with an assurance to resolve all three major issues within 3–4 months. However, the groups claim that seven months later, no progress has been made.

Furthermore, they said that despite assurances by the Chief Minister to discuss the issues on October 26 and November 5, 2025, the meetings did not materialise, dampening the community’s expectations.

One key example cited was the reservation of the newly created Dimoria Assembly Constituency for Scheduled Castes, despite over 90% of its population being Karbis. Karbi organisations termed this a “gross injustice”.

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