Karbis of Assam's Plain demands ST status, Autonomous Council

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• Aug 20, 2021 | moderator

Guwahati: The Assam Plains Karbi Adarbar held a press meet demanding scheduled tribe status and an Autonomous Council for the Karbis living in the plains.

The General Secretary of the organization, Ajith Kathar, asserted that the Assam government had included several tribes into the ST (H) category in 2020. However, still, the Karbis of the plain have been deprived of the benefit.

Kathar stated. "Our main demand is to get the schedule tribe status from the government."
"As our tribe is still economically deprived, so the creation of an Autonomous Council for the community will help the overall development of the community," added Kathar.

Kathar intimidated the government and asserted that if the present BJP led government failed to fulfill their demands, they would be forced to protest against the government.

Kathar claimed, "It occurred due to the inability of the government to submit the research report of the Karbis dwelling in the plains to the concerned authority."

"We are sad that today also, we are struggling to get the ST status," added.

Earlier, on February 28, 2015, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) agreed to the proposal of the Assam government to include the Karbi (Mikir) community in the ST (P) list.

Notably, on January 19, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaim at Kokrajhar that the ST issue of the Karbi (Mikir) in plain will be sorted out.

Moreover, the Union Cabinet passed the matter on May 25, 20-16, and the bill regarding the ST issue was introduced in the Parliament on December 14, 2016, but the bill was still pending since then.