GUWAHATI, Dec 1: In a tit-for-tat response, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said he would send two delegations to study a few things in Jharkhand, days after his counterpart Hemant Soren took a cabinet decision to despatch an all-party team to study the plight of tea tribes in the northeastern state.
Sarma, however, did not specify the areas of concern for the Assam government for deciding to send inspection teams to Jharkhand.
“In our cabinet on December 5, we will make some decisions regarding visiting some Jharkhand areas. We will also go and see two-three things there,” he told reporters after a BJP meeting here on Saturday night when asked about the Jharkhand government’s decision to send a team to Assam.
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Hours after JMM leader Hemant Soren was sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Jharkhand on November 28, his government approved the formation of an all-party panel to study the plight of the “marginalised” tea tribes in Assam.
“We will be happy if somebody looks after us because we have so much work to do. They are sending one team here, but we will send two delegations to Jharkhand to see two special things. We will make a decision next week.
“They will come to see us, we will also go to see them,” said Sarma, who was the BJP’s co-in-charge for the recently held assembly elections in Jharkhand.
The decision taken in the first cabinet meeting of the Soren government came in the backdrop of the poll battle between the JMM-led coalition and NDA, in which Sarma repeatedly raised the issue of the “predicament” of Jharkhand’s tribal community due to alleged large-scale infiltration from Bangladesh.
Soren had raised the issue of the tea tribes in Assam earlier also and now, after winning the elections, he decided to form the panel which is viewed as taking the fight to Sarma’s turf.
On September 25, he had written to Sarma claiming the marginalisation of tea tribes from Jharkhand in Assam despite their significant contributions to the economy.
Soren had expressed grave concern about the community’s situation and advocated for their recognition as STs.
The tea tribes in Assam have the status of Other Backward Classes. The Moran, Motok, Chutia, Tai-Ahom, Koch-Rajbongshi and Tea-Tribes communities have been demanding ST status for years.
Amid this, Soren had appealed to all original inhabitants of Jharkhand in Assam to return.
The JMM-led alliance stormed to power in Jharkhand for the second time in a row, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, while the BJP-headed NDA managed 24 seats. (PTI)
