Guwahati, Aug. 13: The Bokajan District Demand Committee today demanded Dispur to take an initiative to make Bokajan sub-division either a separate state or merge it with Golaghat district.

The committee said the lives and property of the non-Karbis in Karbi Anglong were not secure because of certain policies of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council and threat from former cadres of the United People Democratic Solidarity. They said Bokajan sub-division, where 73 per cent of non-Karbis of Karbi Anglong live, should be made a separate state or merged with the Golaghat district.

Bokajan comprises an area of 4,387 square km with a population of 19,936 (according to the 2011 census).

Talking to the media here, leaders of the committee said among others, non-Karbis have been deprived of transferring land rights to their children in Karbi Anglong. “In 2007, the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council issued an order in this regard,” said Niranjan Karmakar, general secretary of the committee.

The committee said when United Mikir and North Cachar Hills District (which has been divided into Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao later) was formed in 1951, Bokajan was cut off from undivided Sivasagar.

The present Golaghat district was a part of undivided Sivasagar district.

“Our forefathers didn’t have an idea that their land will fall under the Sixth Schedule one day and that they would have to lose the rights of their own land,” Karmakar said.

“Now the Karbis want us to leave Karbi Anglong. But they need our land. We will be happy if Bokajan is made a separate state or merged with Golaghat,” Karmakar said.

The committee was formed in 2011. It said the demand for a separate Bokajan state had been there since the formation of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council.

The committee said besides Bokajan, the other place where most of the non-Karbis live was Diphu. The committee said they would appeal to the government to provide constitutional safeguard to the non-Karbis living in Diphu and other areas of Karbi Anglong.