by Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Union tribal welfare minister Jual Oram says he was ‘misquoted’; scheduling of 6 communities under consideration.Union tribal welfare minister Jual Oram on Friday said that “scheduling of six communities of Assam is under active consideration of the Centre”.His tweet came following the uproar across Assam over his statements. Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal later re-tweeted his tweet. It may be mentioned that, Oram on Thursday has reportedly stated that it takes four decades to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to a community, and hence “there’s little hope” for fulfilling the demands for ST status. Following demands from several pressure groups, Assam government has sent the proposal to the Centre to include the OBC communities Koch-Rajbongshi, Tai-Ahom, Chutiya, Moran, Muttock and the Adivasi tea-tribes in the ST category. After Oram’s statements, students’ bodies and civil groups flayed the Union Minister. On Friday, All Koch-Rajbongshi Students’ Union (AKRSU) members burnt effigies of Oram, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Sonowal at Salakati in Kokrajhar. Demanding “immediate” resignation of Oram, AKRSU said that the statements of the Union Minister are “irresponsible and humiliating”.It may be noted that a few days back, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes had stated that it has not received any notification on granting ST status to six communities of Assam either from Assam or Central government. As per a government notification, a Committee was set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs to recommend the modalities for granting of ST status to six communities on February 29, 2016. The committee was supposed to submit its report by May 31, 2016. It must be noted that these six communities have been carrying out intense protests in various forms for many years now demanding ST status and the Assam government as well as the Centre has time and again assured that they are very much concerned about their demands and are doing their best to soon grant them the ST status.