ITANAGAR, 30 Aug: Welcoming the central and state governments’ plan to relocate Chakma and Hajong refugees from Arunachal, the All Nyishi Students’ Union (ANSU) on Monday termed the step “a bold move to resolve permanent solution on vexed issue.”
Briefing the media, ANSU GS Gora Rikam Bhai said that the union would wholeheartedly support “the decision made by the chief minister and the union minister.”
“AAPSU has been demanding deportation of Chakma and Hajong refugees from Arunachal for five decades. We strongly support AAPSU in this movement,” said Rikam.
The ANSU GS also appealed to the Chakma and Hajong communities to “accept this golden opportunity being offered by the central government and refrain from playing victim card.”
“The union will always stand with the sentiments of the indigenous people of Arunachal Pradesh and will never accept the ill-intended demands for our ancestral land and indigenous rights of the people. The people of Arunachal Pradesh can never accept the illegal claims of the migrants,” he said.
The ANSU also outright rejected the “illegitimate demand made by the civil organizations of the Chakmas and Hajongs,” and said that the leaders of the two communities, who are themselves living in luxury, are misguiding the innocent villagers.
“Therefore, when the government is proposing for honourable solution, such proposal should be accepted graciously,” the union said.
The ANSU also noted the drastic demographic changes in the areas occupied by the refugees. “In 1991, it (refugees’ population) rose to 30,064, and it drastically rose to 65,000, which indicates 400 percent increase,” it said, adding that “the present population is in lakhs, which is a steep rise and posing eminent treat to the indigenous people.”
