Rengma Nagas Demand Autonomous Council
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Rengma Nagas demand autonomous council They write to Union Home Minister and Assam Chief Minister, asking for their voices to be heard Vijaita Singh have no history in the Reng- the Rengma Nagas, whose New Delhi ma Hills. People who are population is around The Rengma Nagas in Assam presently living in Rengma 22,000. We are also de- have written to Union Home Hills are from Assam, Aruna- manding a separate legisla- Minister Amit Shah demand- chal Pradesh and Meghalaya. tive seat for Rengmas,” he ing an autonomous district They speak different dialects said. council amid a decision by and do not know Karbi lan- The National Socialist the Central and the State go- guage of Karbi Anglong,” the Council of Nagaland or NSCN vernments to upgrade the memorandum said. (Isak-Muivah), which is in Karbi Anglong Autonomous RNPC president K. Solo- talks with the Centre for a Council (KAAC) into a terri- mon Rengma told The Hindu peace deal, said in a state- torial council. that the government was on ment on Monday that the The Rengma Naga Peo- the verge of taking a decision Rengma issue was one of the ples’ Council (RNPC), a regis- Long fight:The Rengma Naga community has been seeking without taking them on important agendas of the tered body, said in the mem- board and thus they had “Indo-Naga political talks” an automous council for many years now. * FILE PHOTO orandum that the Rengmas written to Mr. Shah and and no authority should go were the first tribal people in Narrating its history, the sam and Nagaland at the Chief Minister Himanta Bis- far enough to override their Assam to have encountered council said that during the time of creation of Nagaland wa Sarma. interests. the British in 1839, but the Burmese invasions of Assam State and the Karbis, who “How can they do this? More than 3,000 Rengma existing Rengma Hills was in 1816 and 1819, it was the were known as Mikirs till We have been writing to Nagas were forced to relo- eliminated from the political Rengmas who gave shelter to 1976, were the indigeneous them for many years. The cate to relief camps in 2013 map of the State and re- the Ahom refugees. tribal people of Mikir Hills. KAAC population is around after several people were placed with that of Mikir The petition said that the “Thus, the Rengma Hills 12 lakh and the Karbis consti- killed in a series of attacks Hills (now Karbi Anglong) in Rengma Hills was parti- and Mikir Hills were two sep- tute only 3 lakh, the remain- following a call given by a 1951. tioned in 1963 between As- arate entities till 1951. Karbis ing are non-Karbis, including Karbi insurgent group..