Guwahati: Members of the All Assam Koch Rajbongshi Sanmilani (AAKRS) are enacting a significant rail blockade at Srirampur in Kokrajhar district of Assam .
Since Sunday morning, thousands of protesters have gathered at the rail tracks in Srirampur to perform their demonstrations.
The rallies were organised to call for the group to be recognised as a Scheduled Tribe.
Meanwhile, cops and paramilitary units have flocked to the demonstration location in large numbers to keep the protestors under control and avert any untoward incidents.
It should be noted, the Koch-Rajbangshi group has been requesting ST designation since the 1960s. But the demand didn’t really pick much steam until right before the 1996 general election.
To incorporate the Koch-Rajbangshis in the ST category, the then-Narasimha Rao Government issued the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Ordinance on January 27, 1996.
On February 29, 1996, a Bill that sought to repeal the order was also introduced in the Lok Sabha but it expired with the dissolution of the tenth Lok Sabha.