Morigaon, Jan 30 (HS): Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal attended the 38th central general session of All Assam Tribal Sangha at Giridhar Patar Samannwoy Kshetra at Nelli, Morigaon as the chief guest on Saturday and stressed upon the need to protect the tribal rights, culture and heritage for strengthening the greater Assamese society.
During his speech, he appreciated the role played by All Assam Tribal Sangha in the development of indigenous tribal communities of the state while relentlessly voicing the concerns and fighting for the rights of the tribals while making them politically aware. He also informed about the various steps taken by the state government for the development of the tribal population and announced that Rs 1 lakh would be provided to each of the 1300 landless families of Laika-Dodhia for their rehabilitation.
Highlighting steps of the State Government like providing land pattas to 3 lakh 34 thousand landless indigenous families of the state in the last four and half years, Sonowal said that sincere efforts have been made by the State Government to preserve and protect the folk culture, language, literature of the tribals and state level functions for remembering great personalities of tribal communities have also been organised by the state government. Following the motto of ‘sabka sath sabka vikash sabka viswas’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all communities have been developed equally and as part of that initiative, 22 indigenous sahitya sabhas were provided corpus funds total worth Rs 75 crore by the state government, he added.
Urging the tribal people to assert their rights over their lands, Sonowal said that only the government actions will not suffice if the tribal people do not stay alert about the control of their lands. He also called on the tribal societies to focus on education, sports and culture in shaping their younger generations and he appreciated the tribal youths who have excelled in different fields like agriculture, sports and education among others. Terming the present age as the age of science and technology, he implored organisations like All Assam Tribal Sangha to motivate the tribal youths towards science.
He said that without protection of the rights of the tribals Assam cannot progress and he assured that the state government would continue to work for the holistic development of the indigenous tribal communities in the future as well.
Minister of WPT&BC Department Chandan Brahma, in his speech, informed about the various schemes launched for the tribal population and assured them about the continued endeavours for upliftment of the communities. MoS of Health and Family Welfare Pijush Hazarkia, General Secretary of All Assam Tribal Sangha Aditya Khaklari also spoke at the programme. MP Pradan Barua, MLAs Ramakanta Deuri, Dimbeswar Das, CEM of Tiwa Autonomous Council Jiban Konwar, President of All Assam Tribal Sangha Milan Sonowal, representatives of various tribal organisations were also present at the programme.
