kokrajhar: The Tribal Sangha Samannayrakshi Samiti, a coordination body of the All Assam Tribal Sangha, on Wednesday staged a three-hour-long dharna at Kokrajhar, the headquarters of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), opposing Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six different communities of Assam.

It may be mentioned that six different communities of Assam including Ahom, Chutia, Moran, Matak, Koch-Rajbongshi and the tea community have been demanding ST status for the last several years.

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The Samiti staged the dharna from 11 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon in front of the children’s park near the office of the Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner (DC).

The dharna was staged at the initiative of the Kokrajhar district unit of the Tribal Sangha.

During the dharna, Ranjit Kumar Borgoyari, former president of the All Assam Tribal Sangha said, “We will continue to protest against ST categorization of the six communities including Ahom, Chutia, Moran, Matak, Koch-Rajbongshi and the tea community.”

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The All Assam Tribal Sangha leaders stated, “The proposed ST categorisation of the six communities would destroy the languages, identities and existence of the existing Scheduled Tribes.”

Apart from this, the All Assam Tribal Sangha also demanded that suspected Bangladeshi national be evicted from the tribal belt and block areas, the Forest Dwellers’ Act 2006 be implemented. The Tribal Sangha also demanded that the Government should take measures to fill up 12155 backlog posts which have been remaining vacant in the State since long.