The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) has asked the Arunachal Pradesh government to grant permanent residence certificates (PRCs) to the Assamese people residing in the State for ages.
In a letter to Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, ULFA(I) military chief Paresh Baruah said the Assamese people had been denied their right to obtain PRCs despite living in the frontier State for generations, even before the North East Frontier Agency came into existence in 1951.
The area under this agency became Arunachal Pradesh.
“Arunachal Pradesh has always been kind to its Assamese-speaking community over the years. However, Assamese speakers, who are natives of the land… are now in danger of expatriation,” Baruah said in the letter.
He said the legacies of countless Assamese families are now being questioned and reduced to a piece of paper. “The native Assamese speakers of Arunachal Pradesh have been denied the right to obtain their PRCs,” he pointed out.
“Therefore, I would like to humbly request the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh to not let the heritage of countless Assamese families be decimated,” Baruah said.
The Assamese communities living in Arunachal Pradesh include the Morans, Ahoms, Deoris, Adivasis and Kacharis.
Various pressure groups in the State have been vocal about keeping the non-APST (Arunachal Pradesh Scheduled Tribe) people out of the rights and privileges enjoyed by the APSTs. The State has also been in the news for a move to relocate Chakma and Hajong communities elsewhere in India.
The Government of India had settled the Chakmas and Hajongs, displaced by a dam in the erstwhile East Pakistan, in Arunachal Pradesh from 1964-69.
