Abrogate Clause 8 of BTC Accord: HTPF

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 13: Activists of the Hill Tribal Protection Forum (HTPF) staged a sit-in strike at Dighalipukhuripar in Guwahati today in support of their demand for the abrogation of Clause 8 of the BTC Accord and the Union Cabinet’s approval to the move for granting ST (Hill) status to the Bodos living in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao districts.

In a statement issued to the press today by Dr. Mansing Rongpi, one of the convenors of the HTPF, said: “The hill tribes are socio-economically more backward than the plain tribes living in general areas of the then composite Assam. Rupth Brahma, a prominent Bodo leader in the Constituent Assembly, did favour a separate list for Hill and Plain tribes for the socio-political-cultural-educatiol and economic safeguard of the hill tribe. Even subsequent amendments and update of the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 did not alter the scheduling of tribes according to hills and plain categories till 2008.”

However, the decision of the Union Cabinet on May 25, 2016 to include the Bodos living in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao in the Scheduled Tribes (Hills) category is seen as a retrograde step to undermine the eterl wisdom of the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution,” Rongpi said, and added: “We demand the Government of India to reconsider its Cabinet decision and abrogate Clause 8 of the BTC Accord.”