ITANAGAR, 21 Feb: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Chakma and Hajong community-based organizations of Arunachal Pradesh has urged the union ministry of home affairs (MHA) to permanently resolve the long-pending Chakma-Hajong issue.
It said that if the “proposed solution based on assimilation/integration is not feasible, separate territorial area in the form of an autonomous council for the Chakmas/Hajongs in AP can be carved out in the existing Chakma Hajong areas and have it directly administered/governed by the central government as per provisions of the 6th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.”
“It will remove the so-called ‘burden of Chakma/Hajong refugees’ on the state government on the one hand and will also not take away the jobs or dilute other rights of local population on the other as the council so created can be directly funded and administered by the union government. If an autonomous council is not feasible due to the fact that the state is not covered under the 6th Schedule, then the provision of a separate union territory can be considered if the government has the political will to resolve the issue once and for all,” it said.
The JAC further stated that relocation is not an acceptable solution as it would multiply the problems manifold and take the Chakma and Hajong communities 57 years back in time. “Today, about 90-95 percent of Chakmas and Hajongs are citizens of India by birth under Section 3 (1) (a) of the Citizenship Act of 1955 and as such are entitled to fundamental rights as guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution. Even those original migrants, who constitute no more than 5-10 percent of the population today, are legally protected as there is a ruling from the Supreme Court of India in 1996 and 2015 to grant citizenship rights, which is yet to be implemented,” it said.
“The Chakmas and Hajongs of AP continued to exercise all rights and privileges as citizens of India till the 1980s, when the newly formed state of Arunachal Pradesh, under the influence of the foreigners agitation of Assam, erroneously misidentified the Chakmas-Hajongs as foreigners and for reasons best known to political dispensation of the time, systematically began to take away the rights of Chakmas and Hajongs one after another and left no stone unturned to evict the Chakmas-Hajongs from Arunachal Pradesh through overt and covert means by state and non-state actors,” it said.
“The Chakmas and Hajong have been brought and rehabilitated by the government of India with the intention of permanent settlement and were duly resettled in NEFA, then administered by the Centre directly through the governor of Assam. Hence, the arrival of the Chakmas/Hajongs predates the formation of Arunachal Pradesh. Uprooting them is not only morally and ethically wrong but a breach of that promise,” it said.
Relocating the Chakmas and Hajongs to another state 57 years after their rehabilitation in Arunachal Pradesh may open up ethnic fault lines and create more problems that can destabilize the region, it said.
Terming the allegations of ‘abnormal population growth’ and ‘illegal influx’ “propaganda and xenophobia against Chakma-Hajongs,” the JAC further stated that the annual growth rate of the Chakma population is lower (2.6 percent) than the overall annual growth rate of the population of the state which stood at 2.87 percent (50-year period). “The decadal growth rate for Chakma-Hajong population was 17 percent for the decade 2001-2011 as against the overall decadal growth rate of 26 percent for the state,” it said.
