ITANAGAR, 8 Mar: The Chakma-Hajong Joint Action Committee (JAC) said that it has submitted a memorandum to the deputy chief minister, who is also the chairman of the State Level High Powered Ministerial Committee (SLHPMC), outlining the JAC’s objections against the SLHPMC charter including conducting of special census of all the Chakma and Hajong people and demarcation of settlement areas.
“The idea of demarcation of settlement area(s) of Chakmas and Hajongs of the state as per the area comprising of the so-called ‘original designated camps and keeping them within the said designated camps’ is flawed, divisionary and misleading because the Chakmas and Hajongs were taken to NEFA by the government of India, traversing 1,200 kms from the CHT for permanent rehabilitation and were rehabilitated already under five settlement schemes, dispersed over 45-50 villages. It is unfortunate that due to the foreigners agitation in Assam, which later snowballed into Arunachal Pradesh, the Chakmas/Hajongs became soft target and were branded as ‘refugees’, ‘foreigners’ due to this misplaced identity. This mistaken identity was further fuelled by vested interests who played to the gallery and created confusion in the minds of naïve local Arunachali populace, as the Chakma-Hajong issue was used for political mileage just like the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs year after year,” the JAC stated in a release.
Moreover, it said, there are non-Chakmas settled in Chakma settlement areas “and the so-called ‘demarcation of designated camps’ cannot be operationalized in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, mixed society where people of different tribes, ethnicity live together.”
Calling on the state government to withdraw any plans of relocation and issue clarificatory statements to “assuage public angst and anxiety in this regard,” the JAC said that “the policy of demarcation and segregation has not worked anywhere in the world and will not work here.”
However, it said it welcomes the idea of resettlement/shifting of Chakma-Hajong people rendered landless owing to submergence/inundation of their original allotted land or other similar natural factors, “within Arunachal Pradesh.”
It said that a congenial environment must be created by inviting the JAC of the Chakma and Hajong NGOs/CBOs for dialogue/discussion with the state government/SLHPMC.
“The Buddhist Chakmas and the Hindu Hajongs have suffered immensely during the last half-a-century and three generations of their progenies have been adversely affected and therefore it is high time now that the issue is resolved once and for all by the restoration of rights and entitlements, including reinstating access to employment opportunities in state government; reissuing of ration cards; reinstating appointment of Chakma/Hajong gaon burahs as village panchayat authorities; providing MGNREGA and all other central/state government schemes; increasing the enrollment ratio from an abysmally low 7.8 percent; and recognising and issuing PRC/ST certificates to Chakmas and Hajongs who are citizens by birth, based on the 105th Rajya Sabha Petition Committee recommendations.”
