ASSAM: TRIBAL ORGANISATIONS CALL FOR 12 HOUR BANDH ON MARCH 13

Several tribal organisations have called for a 12 hour bandh across Assam on March 13. This comes after it has recently come to light that as many as 12,115 posts reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) are lying vacant in various departments and have not been filled up despite the Department of Welfare of Plain Tribes and Backward Classes Additional Chief Secretary’s instruction. The organisations have called for the bandh as a protest against the government’s failure to fill up the posts. The organisations have also formed a coordination committee with Aditya Khakhlari as the chief coordinator. The committee has also demanded rehabilitation of the indigenous people of Dodhiya and Laika in Tinsukia, who had lost their land in erosion. The committee has also demanded voting rights for people, who have been voting in the Assembly and general elections but are deprived from casting their vote in Panchayat elections.