TURA:
Members of Garo protest group Achik Conscious Holistically Integrated Krima on Monday began their ‘indefinite’ hunger strike outside the premises of the chief minister’s mini secretariat in Tura Dakopgre warning that they would not halt their agitation until an assurance is given by the chief minister to their demands for filling the backlog on reservation for the Garos from the time of inception of the Job Reservation Policy as well as ensuring that Tura is declared the Winter Capital of the state.
“We want a positive response from the government and an assurance from the chief minister, until then we will not withdraw from our hunger strike,” said Laben Marak, a former state bureaucrat and senior leader of ACHIK who is leading a group of volunteers on the indefinite hunger strike.
He said that they have been compelled to go on an indefinite hunger strike because the government refused to listen to their pleas for implementing the backlog and the winter capital demand.
Echoing his statement, ACHIK general secretary and advocate Bernita R Marak said, “We have been demanding the government to implement the Reservation Roster with a cutoff date retrospectively for a long time but the government has continued to ignore our demand.”
She cautioned that the Garo community would face injustice if the backlog is not filled by them and accused the government of refusing to discuss the issue.
“The backlog is related to our share of employment opportunities which were supposed to be given to us since the inception of the state but were never fulfilled. The winter capital in Tura was promised to us in 1972 but never implemented by any of the previous governments. We are not supportive of the mini secretariat but in favour of the winter capital,” said the advocate.