Indigenous Tribal Sahitya Sabha, Assam (ITSSA), a conglomeration of different tribal Sahitya Sabhas, has urged Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal to fulfill his promises for the development of languages and literature of all indigenous communities of the state.
At least nine Sahitya Sabhas of ethnic tribes and three Sahitya Sabhas of indigenous participated in a function organized on the occasion of the death anniversary of Rajbonshi literary icon Kamta Ratna Ambika Charan Choudhury in Kokrajhar on Friday.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
In a joint statement, the members said that Sonowal had assured that the state government will extend financial support of rupees 10 crores to the Asom Sahitya Sabha, rupees 5 crores to the Bodo Sahitya Sabha and rupees 3 crores each to sahitya sabhas of indigenous communities to develop their language and literature.
Also read: Assam: Asom Sahitya Sabha session begins at Sualkuchi
They called upon Sonowal to release the fund within December this year to carry out development activities on literature.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
The state government had also assured to extend financial incentives to writers to the tune of rupees 50,000 to carry forward their activities.
Any writer irrespective of age and having at least one published book to his credit would be for the incentive under the Assam Bhasa Gaurav scheme.
However, the government has decided to change the criterion for the assistance, which has not gone down well with the different Sahitya Sabhas.
They demanded that financial support should be given to writers without changing the previous decision.
They also aired their resentment over Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s comments on the tribal belt and his promise to distribute land pattas to all communities equally soon after coming to power in Bodo Territorial Council (BTC).
They said his divisive comments have hurt the sentiments of different indigenous communities who have been living together in the Bodo Territorial Region.
They also called upon all political parties not to resort to violence in the ensuing BTC polls.