The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) on August 25 requested the Centre to look into the Chakma-Hajong issue and take concrete steps for a permanent solution on the same.
The vexed issue came to the fore with chief minister Pema Khandu in his Independence Day address stating that both BJP governments in the state and at the Centre will work “in a much-focused manner to evacuate the illegal immigrants with proper order for their settlement in other places”.
Khandu added that as per prevailing laws, no non-indigenous tribe can permanently settle in the state.
Later, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju also commented on the issue.
The AAPSU said that they welcome the Union minister’s and CM’s statements on the issue. “Our CM Pema Khandu and Union law and justice minister Kiren Rijiju had said that under the ambit of the Indian constitution, Chakma-Hajong will be taken outside (moved outside) of Arunachal. This a historic statement and we welcome it. AAPSU considers it as a public documentation. We are hopeful that PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah will take appropriate steps and as early as possible their statements will turn into reality. It should not remain only in words,” AAPSU general secretary Tobom Dai said while addressing a press conference in Itanagar on August 25.
“Chakma-Hajong are illegal immigrants brought way back in between 1964 to 1969 into Arunachal Pradesh (then North East Frontier Agency) without any pre-intimation to the local people. They will never be accepted as a part of the greater Arunachal society,” the AAPSU general secretary added.
Dai also alleged that some leaders from the Chakma-Hajong community are trying to sabotage the process being initiated by the government.
“The way reaction is coming from Chakma-Hajong community, especially some of their leaders who are well settled in the luxury of New Delhi, are trying to sabotage the whole process once again. It’s an irony that Chakma-Hajong people also have been demanding for a permanent solution under the ambit of Indian constitution. Likewise, the AAPSU and people of Arunachal have always been demanding that a logical conclusion should come on the same. We request them to take it as a golden opportunity,” he said.
Endorsing Dai, AAPSU president Hawa Bagang said: “We want a permanent solution.”
