Arunachal: Students’ body demands Govt to withdraw decision to form Mon, Patkai autonomous council

The Students’ United Movement of All Arunachal (SUMAA) demanded the withdrawal of the decision to put Mon Autonomous Region (MAR) and Patkai autonomous district council (PADC) under the 6th schedule of the Constitution of India.

The organisation urged the Chief Minister Pema Khandu to make the government’s stand clear on the demands of Mon and Patkai autonomous councils in the public domain. “If it is genuine, everyone will support, and if it is not, this idea has to be given up on the spot,” the organisation stated in a press communique.

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Saying that the proposal for the creation of MAR and PADC is the biggest blunder of the government, the SUMAA appealed to other minority tribes of the state that fall under the drawn map of MAR to “not fall into the trap as autonomous councils have been found as ground for corruption and nepotism.”

The body further asked union Sports Minister and MP Kiren Rijiju to not propagate regionalism and urged him to come clean on the issue in Parliament. It also sought to bring the state under Article 371(A), at par with the statehood act of Nagaland.

The then Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki in 2015 had said the then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured him of setting up Patkai Autonomous Council comprising three eastern districts — Tirap, Changlang and Longding — in order to accelerate the development process in the backward districts.

Tuki had claimed that Centre gave the assurance when a delegation led by him met Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Sunday, official sources in Itanagar said.

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