The notice No. RMSA/Special TET for BTC/745/2016/pt/17, dated 04th Jan, 2017 issued under the signature of Member Secretary, TET Empowered Committee for Secondary Education published in various dailies on January 5, 2017, is wrong. First, nobody, other than the Sixth Schedule which is a part of the Constitution of India, is authorised to select Karbi Anglong as a permanent district. Karbi Anglong is already a permanent Tribal Area district under Paragraph 1 and 20 of the Sixth Schedule. The Notice seems to be intentionally made defective to confuse the Hills Tribes people between “Permanent Resident” and “Permanent District”.
Tribal Area means area only for Scheduled Tribes (Hills). Only Scheduled Tribes (Hills) and Non-Scheduled Tribes who were in this district since before 1939, can claim Karbi Anglong as their district and permanent residents in it, for others, it is not their district as per the Sixth Schedule. No one can alter it except by a Constituent Assembly. TET Empowered Committee has no constitutional power to alter it, so it has committed a breach of the Constitution. So, the TET Empowered Committee should correct their notice. Moreover, the notice is issued from a file dealing with BTC.
Secondly, the notice authorises the KAAC only to supervise, conduct of TET is proposed to be done by State Government. It is taking away the power of the KAAC. “Supervision” is an ambiguous term. It will turn KAAC into a chowkider. Karbis and other Hills Tribes of Karbi Anglong are now reaping the fruit of their rejection of Autonomous State in 1969-70.
J. I. Kathar, IAS (Rtd.)
Diphu.
