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A Correspondent
DIPHU: The high-level committee on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord had invited the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) to hold a discussion on the terms of reference of the committee.
Accordingly, a team of the ASDC comprising Holiram Terang, president, and Chandra Kanta Terang, working president, met the HLC on November 2 in Guwahati. It was apprised to the committee that a memorandum had already been sent to the committee on September 19, 2019, which was a reiteration of the view of the ASDC given to the Department of Assam Accord, Government of Assam, on January 28, 2008. The ASDC once again categorically placed before the committee that Clause 6 of the Assam Accord mentions about ‘constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people’. The clause does not cover the Karbi, Dimasa and other hill tribes. Therefore, separate measures have to be taken for the protection of the hill tribes or Clause 6 has to be legally interpreted so as to include the hill tribes, besides the Assamese people. There should be reservation of seats in the Assembly and other local bodies for tribals as well, besides the Assamese people.
On the question of defining ‘indigenous’, the ASDC opined that there could not be any cut-off year for categorizing indigenous. However, the idea can be explored with the general concept that apart from the Hill tribes, people who have been residing in the area since the area came to be known as ‘Assam’ or ‘Axom’ can be categorized as ‘indigenous’.
The committee also wanted to know about the political rights of other non-indigenous citizens. The ASDC gave its opinion that those citizens should not be given the right to contest elections or even to vote. As to the question of reservation of seats in elected bodies, it was opined that it should be proportionate to the size of the population amongst the Indigenous people, said Holiram Terang, president of ASDC, while addressing a press conference on Wednesday.