NGO coordination committee asks parties not to file Chakma candidates

Aizawl, July 25 (PTI): A meeting of Mizoram’s NGO Coordination Committee today decided to ask all the political parties in the state not to field any candidate belonging to the Chakma community in the coming state assembly polls scheduled to be held by the end of next year.
Lal Sangzuala president of MZP and a leader of the NGO Coordination Committee said that the move was to declare that Chakmas living in Mizoram “are not natives or sons of the soil as their homeland remains Bangladesh.” He said that though the Chakmas were given a separate autonomous district council by the Government of India in 1972, it was imposed upon the people of Mizoram and was done without “consulting” the Mizo people.
The meeting also decided to convene a meeting with all the political parties to hold consultation on the issue of the Citizens Amendment Bill, 2016. The meeting re-affirmed its stance that majority of the Chakmas in the state were “illegal” immigrants and should not be given the status of indigenous of the state. The meeting was attended by top leaders of the NGOs including the central committee of the Young Mizo Association (YMA), the apex Mizo body and other major NGOs and student organisations came in the wake of the student agitation protesting inclusion of four Chakma students to study in medical colleges under the state quota.