A CORRESPONDENT
BOKAKHAT: The Kalita community staged a protest in Numaligarh on Saturday under the initiative of the Kalita Jatiya Sanmilan, demanding the community's rightful entitlements. The protesters attempted to block National Highway 37 at Bihora in Numaligarh, but their attempt was foiled by a heavy police deployment.
More than a thousand police personnel were deployed in Numaligarh to prevent the protesters from disrupting traffic on the national highway. Eventually, following the arrival of a magistrate from Bokakhat, the protesters submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister of Assam.
In the memorandum, the organisation stated that the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2026 does not provide comprehensive protection to the Kalita community of Assam. The memorandum pointed out that Section 177(3) of the Bill provides that only Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, indigenous ethnic communities, and disadvantaged groups would enjoy legal and administrative rights within a five-kilometre radius of iconic heritage institutions.
According to the organisation, communities outside these specified categories could be evicted by the District Commissioner at any time if they failed to produce documents proving that their families had resided in the area for three generations.
The organisation argued that such a Bill, which creates divisions among indigenous communities, would obstruct the government's stated objectives. It therefore demanded the explicit inclusion of the Kalita community as an indigenous ethnic community under Section 177(3) of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2026.