North East students body calls for NE bandh on Dec 10 against CAB

The influential North East Students' Union (NESU) in a release on Friday, asked the Central Government to withdraw the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, stating that it would threaten the existence of indigenous tribes in the North East. The union also called a 11-hour Northeast bandh on December 10 to protest against the central government's move.

Guwahati (Assam): The influential North East Students' Union (NESU) on Friday called for an 11-hour Northeast bandh on December 10 to protest against the central government's move to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

NESO advisor Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya told a news agency that the bandh has been called jointly by all students'' organisations of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura.

“On the one hand, the Central Government says the Bill will not affect the Sixth Schedule and ILP areas in the North Eastern States, while States like Tripura and Assam will be left out because a large portion of these two States is not under the jurisdiction of the Sixth Schedule. Even the Garo Hills, largely an area under the Sixth Schedule, has certain portions not covered by it, especially areas that fall under Mouza No. VI, and the problem is confounded where areas under Sixth Schedule like Tura, Baghmara, Simsanggre and Resu townships have municipal boards, which is a dilution of the provisions of the Sixth Schedule," added Bhattacharya.