Citizen bodies take out rally against bandh at Haflong

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

HAFLONG, Aug  25: In protest against the bandh culture , several organisations  including Jadikhe isho Hosom (JNH) All Dimasa Students’ Union (ADSU) HWS, HYS along with NGOs and other orgasations took out a protest rally at Haflong  today.

The rally was taken out from Cultural Institute Hall and marched through the major parts of Haflong town to the office of the Deputy Commissioner wherein hundreds of students, people from various community took part . Later a memorandum was also submitted to Dima Hasao DC addressing Assam Governor.

The memorandum stated that the Jadikhe isho Hoshom and various other organisations were instrumental in bringing the insurgent groups into the negotiating table and after a series of several rounds of talks with both the State Government  and the Centre, a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) was filly signed at Delhi on the 8th of October 2012 between both the factions of the DHD, the Government of Assam and the Government of India in the presence of the then Union Home Minister  Sushil Kumar Shinde and  Chief Minister Traun Gogoi.

“The signing of the MoS was welcomed by all the people of the district, irrespective of caste, creed or community and we all heated a sigh of relief since it culmited two decades of unrest and violence in the only hill district of Assam.  But unfortutely, after a lull for quite some time it seems the peace and tranquillity of the district is again being disturbed by some section of misguided youths who are being directed to conduct bandh by unscrupulous politicians for their own political gain, which we totally condemn,” sated the memorandum.

The unrest and disturbances which we are experiencing in the form of bandh etc, would surely hamper development works in our district and the worst sufferers are the business community, daily wage earners and most importantly the student community.

 “Moreover, in a district where the population is less than two lakhs, bifurcating it for creating another district was totally not feasible and we oppose it in all forms, over and above, all the communities of the district are equally represented in the N. C. Hills Autonomous Council, be it economical, political, social or cultural. Therefore the question of bifurcation, deprivation, etc. does not arise,” the memorandum stated.  The memorandum stated that as a mark to ban and oppose the bandh culture in our district,  the  organizations took out the  rally.