IMPHAL, March 10: The Tribal Rights Demand Committee, Jiribam has said that it decide to launch a peaceful democratic protest soon against the intention of the state government to declare Jiribam to a full fledged revenue district without the consent of the tribal populace.
According to a release of the committee, marginalization of the tribal community who inhabit a vast area of rural Jiribam by the stoppage of Hill house tax and the intention to convert forcibly the tribal populace and Tribal Hill lands to plain will not be tolerated.
The systematic efforts to make the hill areas of Jiribam by changing the name of hill allowance enjoyed by the government employees to ‘difficulty allowance’, the removal of Tribal Development Block, stoppage of Hill house tax of Tribal villages and the intention to make tribal inhabited area revenue land is seen as a sinister design to rob the tribals of their identity and land rights, it said.
The committee asked the rationale behind the proposed Upgradation of Jiribam to a full fledged revenue district when all evidence point toward the status of Jiribam as hill areas from times past. The tribal of Jiribam welcomed the Upgradation of Jiribam sub-division to district if only the rights of minorities and tribal are preserved, it said.