Opposition to Joint High Powered Committee (JHPC) Grows Louder

ITANAGAR: Opposition to the Joint High Powered Committee (JHPC) final report over the Permanent Residential Certificate (PRC) issue is growing each day with the Yobin Welfare Society (YWS) on Friday calling for its immediate withdrawal citing it as a threat to the very identity and existence of their tribe.

The society is critical of the JHPC recommendation to the State Government because PRC may be issued to Assam Rifles ex-serviceman settlers of Changlang district who came and settled there prior to 1968.

“There will be multiple adverse impacts on our culture, identity, and the very existence of our tribe will be at stake if the JHPC recommendation are approved in the Assembly,” observed president, YWS, Lucheso Yobin while interacting with reporters on Friday here at the Press Club. He lamented that the JHPC recommendation has added more woes to the problems of people who are already facing marginalization issues since very long.

Lucheso asserted that a rapid increase in the population of ex-servicemen in the Yobin inhabited area is a tangible example of how vulnerable ethnic groups are to being dominated by the outsiders on their own land today.

Citing historical record, he claimed that their people have been forcefully evicted from their ancestral lands by the government to make space for settlement of 200 ex-servicemen and families of retired Army personnel.

Informing that the lease agreement or land allotment order issued to ex-serviceman is going to expire in 2020, he called for rehabilitating them somewhere else outside Vijoynagar without renewing the agreement further.

Located in the southeast periphery of Namdapha under Changlang district, Vijoynagar is the remotest circle in the State, wedged between the China-Myanmar border and is homeland to this little-known Lisu (Yobin) tribe. As per the 2001 census, there are about 13 villages in the circle with a population of about 4,000. Sadly, after being declared as an administrative headquarters in 1962, the condition of Vijoynagar remains unchanged. Reportedly, it takes around seven to ten days to reach Vijoynagar by foot through dense forests.

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