GUWAHATI, Sept 24 - The IMAA Bishnupriya Manipuri has appealed to the High-level Committee on Implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord to recommend steps for providing political safeguard to the Bishnupriya Manipuri community of the State.
In a statement here today, its working president Kishar Kumar Sinha said the Bishnupriya people are an indigenous community and in terms of population they are a microscopic minority community. People of this community migrated to Assam in phases from Manipur well before the colonial rule and they settled in different parts of the State, while some of them migrated to Bangladesh, Tripura and Myanmar also.
Since Independence this microscopic minority indigenous community is not having any representation in the Parliament of the country. As such, providing political safeguard to this community should be considered by the High-Level Committee and it should recommend reservation of a Rajya Sabha seat for it and reservation of some State Assembly seats like Patharkandi, Ratabari and Katigorah, where the people of this community have a considerable presence, he said.
But, Sinha lamented that due to the massive influx of the migrants from across the international border between 1951 and 1971, in the above Assembly segments also the people of this community have failed to become an overwhelmingly dominant population, despite living in those Assembly segment areas for centuries.
The community has been listed by the Union government and the UNESCO as an endangered one. In terms of culture and spiritual matters, it has a close affinity with the Dimasas, while in terms of language, it is close to the Assamese people, Sinha added.
