Renaming of Directorate for Welfare of Tea and Ex-Tea Garden Tribes opposed

A CORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA: While welcoming the recent peace accord between the eight Adivasi insurgent groups and the Government of India in presence of the State Government represented by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on September 15 in New Delhi, the Indian National Congress (INC) opposed the renaming of the Directorate for Welfare of Tea and Ex-Tea Garden Tribes as the Directorate for Welfare of Adivasis and Tea and Ex-Tea Garden Tribes.

At a press meet convened at Doomdooma Press Club on Wednesday, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) general secretary, former MLA Durga Bhumij said that former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi constituted the Directorate of Tea Welfare for the all-round welfare of the Adivasis and the tea-tribes communities of Assam. The Assam Tea Tribes Students' Association (ATTSA) too had a role in its formation.

Apprehending that the change of nomenclature might give rise to conflict between the Adivasis and the tea tribes, he demanded that under no circumstances the name should be changed. He suspected a conspiracy in driving a wedge between them.

Bhumij further said that the former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi constituted the Adivasis Development Council in 2008 and the previous Congress government, too, gave its thoughts for the development of the Adivasis. The present government has skillfully made slight changes by naming it as the Adivasis Welfare Development Council and for that made an allotment of Rs 1,000 crore for a period of five years, he said.

Bhumij drew attention of the signatories of the peace accord by saying that they should construct a martyr column over a plot of 10 bighas of land to be given allotment by the State Government and the head office of the Adivasi Welfare Development Council should be constructed over there along with an auditorium.

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