Guwahati: Calling for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the tea garden community of the state, members of the Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) on Monday staged a two-hour protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Dibrugarh.
The protesters raised slogans against the BJP-led government and accused it of non-fulfulling its promise of granting ST status to the tea community community of the state. They also threatened to launch a massive agitation across the state if the government fails to confer ST status to them as promised.
Granting of ST status to six ethnic groups of Assam, Adivasis, Mottock, Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbongshi, Sootea, Moran, was a poll promise of the BJP during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2016 Assam Assembly election. However the BJP has maintained silence regarding the ST status during the course of its election campaign for the 2021 Assam assembly polls.
“The Adivasi community in Assam has been fighting for ST status for the last 76 years. The community fulfills all the criterias required for granting of ST status. It was also a poll promise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Lok Sabha election campaign in Assam. The BJP has been wining multiple elections with the promise of granting ST status. Many years have passed but still there is no clarity on the issue. Neither the Centre nor the state government is serious in the matter,” ATTSA Dibrugarh district president Bimal Bagh said.
At the end of Monday’s protest, the ATTSA members despatched a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the Deputy Commissioner seeking ST status for the tea community.