Guwahati: The Matak Youth Students’ Council and Students’ Union protested on Thursday in response to the Centre’s amended lists of Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the Dibrugarh district.
According to reports, the protestors blocked National Highway No 37 in Chabua.
They objected to the ST list’s exclusion of six tribes from the state.
The protesters set fire to the effigies of a number of Union ministers, including Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Clashes broke out between the protestors and police.
Chief of Raijor Dal MLA Akhil Gogoi alleged in a press conference that the Assamese tribes have been deceived by the central government.
Everyone in the state was asked by him to speak out against this betrayal.
Gogoi stated, “The Bill was already introduced in 2018 in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Tribes from Assam may be included on a day if the Center so chooses. They are misleading us even after the cabinet passed the law.”
He said that the exclusion of the tribes from the ST list was due to a covert cooperation between the Center and numerous ministers.
He added that the ethnic group leaders from the six tribes should stop collaborating and that there should be a big uprising if they wanted to be on the list.
Gogoi has demanded the inclusion of six tribes from Assam in the ST list.
Notably, the Central Government on Wednesday approved the inclusion of various communities in the lists of Scheduled Tribes (ST) of five states namely Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
The decision was made at a Union Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it was warmly embraced by the states involved.