Guwahati: The apex body of the Dimasa tribe — the Jadikhe Naisho Hoshom (JNH) — on Friday submitted a memorandum to Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai, pressing for a change of name for the troubled North Cachar Hills district to Dima Hasao Raji.
On the other hand, the apex body of the Zeme Naga tribe of the district — Zeme Council (Assam), impressed upon Mr. Pillai the need to divide the N.C. Hills district into two districts — one comprising the Dimasa majority areas and the other comprising non-Dimasa areas and retaining the present name, with its headquarters at Haflong.
The Zeme Council said in its memorandum that the council as well as the Indigenous People’s Forum of N.C. Hills opposed the proposal to change the name.
A JNH and a Zeme Council delegation led by their respective presidents, D. Naiding and Samsadinbe Jeme, met Mr. Pillai at the Raj Bhavan here separately, and submitted their memoranda.
The JNH alleged that even though the N.C. Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) had unanimously approved changing the name to Dima Hasao Raji and had sent the proposal to Dispur for approval, the State had been delaying the process.
“The violence allegedly between the Dimasa and Zeme Nagas is believed to be a result of the effort of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council in changing the name of the district to Dima HasaoRaji. Such an act has also been viewed as a discrimination by the majority Dimasas on the smaller minority groups.
However, the ground reality and the statistics speak contrary to such claims. For instance, the NCHAC is the only entity that gave opportunity of representation to smaller ethnic groups by accommodating seats in the NCHAC,” the JNH memorandum said.