Dibrugarh: The Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) has raised the demand that scheduled tribe (ST) status should be granted to all the 112 tea tribes from Assam. The demand comes at a time when 36 tea tribes of Assam along with five other ethnic communities, namely Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbongshi, Chutiya, Moran and Motok, are being considered for inclusion in the ST list.The tea tribe community constitutes 20% (around 70 lakh) of Assam’s 3.5 crore population. According to the current proposal, an estimated 25 lakh people of the tea tribe community are expected to get the ST status.ATTSA publicity secretary Lakhindra Kurmi on Friday said that leaving out 76 tea tribes from the list will be a grave mistake and a great injustice for the tea tribe community of the state. “It was a grave mistake on the part of the state government to leave out 76 tea tribes from the ST list. For some strange reason, the state government submitted the ethnographic reports of only 36 tea tribes to the Union ministry of tribal affairs. So, these 36 tribes have found a place in the ST list. But it is a fact that that the tea tribe community as a whole is the most backward and neglected, be it economically, socially and in education. Therefore, its our request to the government to provide ST status to all tea tribes of Assam,” Kurmi said.Earlier, the Asom Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), led by tea tribe leader and former Union DoNER minister Paban Singh Ghatowar, had raised the same demand.On the other hand, the influential All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam (AASAA) has supported the government's move to include only 36 tea tribes in the ST list. AASAA general secretary Stephen Lakra on Friday said, “It is not possible to include all the tea tribe communities in the ST list. Only those tribes, whose ethnographic reports were sent to the Union tribal affairs ministry, have been included in the list. There are already scheduled castes and OBCs among the tea tribes. How can they be included in the ST list? Our only demand is that the whole process of granting ST status to the six communities of Assam must be expedited. The matter has dragged on for long.”

Stay updated with all the Latest Guwahati headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.