Assam: Rabha Unions’ protest against non-inclusion of RHAC in Sixth Schedule

Dhupdhara: The All Rabha Students’ Union (ARSU), All Rabha Women Council (ARWC), and the Sixth Schedule Demand Committee (SSDC) organized a protest movement covering a distance of around 50 kilometres on Wednesday.

The movement in Kamrup District started from Kenduguri village in Boko and went through National Highway 17, covering a distance of 22 kilometres. The movement in Goalpara District started from Dudhnai and covered a distance of 28 kilometres on the same highway, ending at Dhupdhara.

Nripen Khanda, President of ARSU, led the movement in Kamrup District, while Pradip Rabha, General Secretary of ARSU, led the movement in Goalpara District.

The protest was organized to demand the inclusion of Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) areas in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. The organizations also demanded the transfer of power and functions to the RHAC, as mentioned in the Rabha Accord, and the creation of a development council for Rabha people residing outside the RHAC area.

“We have a long-pending demand to include RHAC areas in the Sixth Schedule. Despite being deprived by past governments of fulfilling our demands to save our community along with other communities living in the RHAC area, for equal development for all communities and to save our community’s future generations. That is why we have started this ‘Padyatra’ to fulfil our demand as soon as possible,” said Nripen Khanda, President of ARSU.

“Many times, governments have promised to fulfil our demands, but till now they have shown a tremendous lack of goodwill in fulfilling our long-pending demands,” added Khanda.

“We condemn the government for not fulfilling our demands till today. We, the Rabha community, are ready to give our assessment politically to the BJP party and their workers,” said Nripen Khanda.

“If we do not get any fruitful results from the government, we will project our own candidates in the Guwahati Lok Sabha Constituency Election along with the State Assembly Election and Panchayat Election,” added Khanda.

More than five thousand people from Rabha, Bengali, and Gorkha communities, as well as members of ARSU, ARWS, and SSDC, gathered at Dhupdhara, where the movement concluded with a short speech. The protestors announced that a massive gathering protest would be held in Dudhnai on 9th April and in Boko on 3rd April.

RHAC executive members, including Sumit Rabha, Aditya Rabha, Vice President Ramakanta Rabha, ZPC Vice President Komburam Rabha, ARSU Organization Secretary Ankur K. Rabha, ARSU Kamrup District President Ananda Rabha, and many other leaders took part in the mass movement.

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