NESO resorts to region-wide protest against CAA, demanding ILP

Guwahati, Aug 17: The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), the banner organisation of influential students organisations of the region today staged protest demonstrations over key issues concerning the region across the state capitals of the Northeast region.

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) staged the protest demonstration in the city in solidarity with the NESO where hundreds of members of NESO assembled at the Swahid Nyash Bhawan in Uzanbazar in the city, holding placards and shouting slogans, even as Assam Police and paramilitary forces personnel were deployed in front of the AASU headquarters and barricades put in place to stop the NESO members from taking out a rally in the streets

The charter of demands of the NESO include repeal of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), permanent solution of the foreigners’ influx issue, elimination of operations of fundamentalist groups in the region, time-bound implementation of the Assam Accord, introduction of inner-line permit (ILP) in all states of the Northeast, provision of Constitutional safeguards to the indigenous people of the region, withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from the entire Northeast, implementation of a separate time zone for Northeast, declaration of Assam’s annual flood/erosion as a national problem, besides resolving the Chakma-Hajong issue in Arunachal Pradesh.

Leading the protest in Swahid Nyas Bhawan, the NESO adviser and All Assam Students' Union (AASU) chief adviser, Samujjal Bhattacharjya said that despite attempts by the state government to suppress the democratic agitation, the student’s unions of the region, under the banner of NESO, would continue to push for its key demands including just repeal of CAA.

“The Assam government has deployed security personnel and put up barricades to stop members of NESO from coming to the city. The government has attempted to suppress our agitation, which is indicative that it is threatened by our democratic and peaceful agitation, which we pledge to continue,” Bhattacharjya alleged.

The NESO leader further said that Assam might have to face the fate where the primary or the state language turns out to be secondary which has been witnessed in Tripura.

In May this year, NESO reiterated that it would never accept CAA in Assam and other states of the Northeast.

Earlier, on the occasion of the 37th anniversary of the signing of the historic Assam Accord in 1985, the AASU leadership reiterated that it would continue their democratic movement simultaneously along with a legal battle against CAA.