By Anjuman Ara Begum, TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: The ethnic violence victims of Assam’s Bongaigaon district sitting on fast unto death in Guwahati for a week to press the government to accept their demand of monthly ration called off their strike on July 18 after the state Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Bhumidhar Barman assured them to fulfill their demand.
About 100 people including 17 women belonging to Bondhup Relief camp at Chirang in Bongaigaon district sat on a fast unto death on July 13, 2009, right in front of the Assam State Assembly Bhavan. They were demanding that the government issues monthly ration of 5 kg grains to them as other inmates of the camp get. These people were forcefully driven away from their homes way back in the year 1993 during the ethnic clash between the Bodos and the non-Bodos.
Md Wahab, organizer of the hunger strike, informed that the minister also offered Rs. 50 thousand towards the permanent settlement of the inmates. Wahab said they didn’t accept the amount as it is too less.
Meanwhile AUDF has decided to organise another dharna at Jantar Mantar , New Delhi later this month to pressurize the central government for the permanent rehabilitation of the inmates located at 9 relief camps in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts since 1993.