Dibrugarh: AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharjya on Friday said tea tribe people are integral part of Assamese society.

He was participating in a mass convention organised by the Chah Jangosthi Adivasi Joutha Mancha at the Chowkidinghee playground in protest against the recent statement by a pro-talks Ulfa leader that tea garden workers are not indigenous people of Assam. Bhattacharjya said the problems of the tea tribes of Assam are also the problems of Assam.

"They are integral part of Assam without whom Assamese society is incomplete. Many tea tribe people sacrificed their lives in the Assam Agitation. They work tirelessly for the development of Assam. They have a great history of 200 years in Assam and they contribute immensely in developing the economy of the state," he added.

Bhattacharjya mentioned the contribution and sacrifice of tea community students during the Assam movement of the 1980s against illegal immigrants. He said tea tribes are indigenous people of the state and no one has the right to classify them as non-indigenous.

Pro-talks Ulfa leader Anup Chetia had claimed that those who resided in Assam before the Treaty of Yandaboo on February 24, 1826 (when Assam was ceded to the British) were the only rightful indigenous people of the state.

Former president of Asam Sahitya Sabha Nagen Saikia said there is no need to separately classify the tea tribes as they are "Assamese people".

The mass rally on Friday saw an unprecedented response from the tea community as thousands of people from the tea gardens of Upper Assam turned up for the event.

"One fourth of Assam's population consists of our tea community," ACMS president Paban Singh Ghatowar said.