Tamarhat: An eleven-member delegation representing leading national organisations of the Koch Rajbongshi community has been camping in New Delhi, pressing for urgent action on the community’s long-standing demand for Scheduled Tribe status. Their primary appeal is for the Central Government to forward the modality report and proposal submitted by the Ministerial Group in the Assam Legislative Assembly and to table it during the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament.
According to sources, the delegation launched its outreach on December 15 with separate meetings with Barpeta Lok Sabha MP Phani Bhushan Choudhury and Darrang-Udalguri MP and Assam BJP president Dilip Saikia. In both meetings, memoranda were submitted urging the forwarding of the Ministerial Group’s report and requesting the inclusion of the Rajbongshi language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The lobby efforts continued over the next three days. On December 16, the representatives met MP Pradan Barua. On December 17, they held discussions with Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. The following day, December 18, the group reached out separately to Union Tribal Affairs Minister Juel Oram, Rajya Sabha MP Birendra Prasad Baishya, and BJP National General Secretary Nitin Nandanik, handing over memoranda reiterating the same demands.
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In each interaction, the delegation emphasised the need for the Union Government to introduce and pass a Bill conferring tribal status on the Koch Rajbongshi community in the Budget Session, scheduled for January.
The delegation comprises Pinaki Ray, Secretary of the Koch Rajbongshi Sahitya Sabha; Ranaditya Kumar Barman, General Secretary of the All Assam Koch Rajbongshi Sanmilani; Narayan Kumar Medhi, President of the Koch Rajbongshi Struggle Committee; along with eight other senior leaders from Koch Rajbongshi national bodies.
Community leaders have described the Delhi campaign as a decisive push towards achieving constitutional recognition, asserting that the matter has remained unresolved for decades despite repeated assurances.
