“Foreigners won’t flock the state on hordes after passing of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016,” assures Assam chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal during his meeting with literary bodies of the state on Tuesday.
Sonowal met the representatives of Asom Sahitya Sabha and literary bodies of other indigenous communities to explain the state government’s stand on Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and other relevant issues, a state government communiqué informed.
He assured that that rights of the indigenous people over the land, language, local bodies, panchayat, employment opportunities will be protected with proper implementation of Clause 6 of Assam Accord.
The CM stated, “Misinformation and rumours have been spread by various agencies in the society that foreigners in hordes will flock the state after the passing of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which is false.”
Calling on Asom Sahitya Sabha and all indigenous bodies to make the people aware about correct ramifications of the Bill and Clause 6 implementation, Sonowal asserted that language and culture of indigenous people would not be allowed to get threatened as the government is committed to safeguard their interests.
“It is a national policy and responsibility of the people belonging to six religions communities seeking domicile in India from the neighbouring countries because of religious persecution. They will be shared by the whole country,” he remarked.
Claiming that a false picture has been projected of the Bill being anti Assam, Sonowal said that the state government was made up of sons of the soil, which is committed to uphold the interest of the local people.
“That is why the government is giving land pattas to the landless indigenous people of state and taking all necessary steps to sustain the indigenous people’s control over the land and culture of the state,” he said.
Trying to allay fears that interest of the existing Scheduled Tribe (ST) people will be affected by granting ST status to six communities of the state, Sonowal said that all measures would be taken to protect the present reservations enjoyed by the existing ST communities of the state.
Other topics that came up for discussion in the meeting were implementation of Assam Language Bill, using Assamese language in official correspondence of the state government, enlisting Assamese language fonts in Unicode etc.
