Hojai sit-in demands ST status for Meetei
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, May 26 2024:
World Meetei Council (WMC), Assam State Unit and Hojai District Committee in association with Apunba Meira Paibi Lup Brahmaputra Valley (AMPLBV), Assam Pradesh Manipuri Association (APMA), United Manipuri Association, Assam (UMAA) organised a sit-in demonstration at Nandapur Charali,-Hojai district, Assam on Sunday to demand Scheduled Tribe status for Meetei.
In a joint release, WMC Assam president Th Brajamohan Singh, AMPLBV president L Baijayanti, WMC Hojai vice president Naba Kumar Singha and UMAA president L Sarat urged Manipur chief minister Nongthombam Biren Singh to send the much delayed reports for ST i.e., latest socio-economic and ethnographic reports of Meetei to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
The Meetei community living in Assam have been demanding ST status to protect the identity of Meetei much earlier than the Manipur Meetei's movement on the same issue, it noted, while adding, their demand has been kept in abeyance with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma assuring to take the necessary action for inclusion in the list of ST in the Indian Constitution the next day the Meetei of Manipur are granted ST status.
The release continued that the fact of the matter is Meetei of Assam can be included in the ST list only after the Meetei in Manipur become ST.
Raising concern that Meeteis are staring at possible extinction sooner than later, the joint release emphasised that grant of ST status remains the only means to protect the indigenous community.
"Therefore, for the sake of our common future both in Assam and Manipur we, the Meetei people of Assam earnestly urge the CM of Manipur to kindly send the two reports on Meetei as desired by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs so that the process of inclusion of the Meetei in the ST list may be completed before the process of Delimitation of 2026," it reiterated.