Sivasagar, Nov. 6: The All Tai Ahom Students’ Union (Atasu) has urged the government to initiate realistic steps to grant ST status to six communities, including the Ahoms, who have been demanding the status for several decades.

Talking to reporters here after the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected central executive committee of the union, Atasu chief adviser Aswini Chetia said they had set a deadline — till the ensuing 2016 Assembly elections — for the government to initiate concrete steps to grant ST status to the six communities.

“Atasu would be forced to take action against the government if they fail to initiate concrete steps,” he said, adding that both the central and the state governments have so far not initiated any concrete steps regarding the demand.

The union has planned to hold rallies in December in all the district headquarters in support of its demand.

Speaking to reporters, its president Pranjal Rajkonwar, who has been re-elected for another term, said protection and preservation of monuments was one of the top priorities for the newly elected body.

“We have also decided to set up an education trust with an initial deposit of Rs 1 crore, which would provide scholarships to meritorious and economically backward students of the state,” he said.

Twenty-seven members of the Atasu central executive committee took oaths of office at the spacious lawns of Shiva dole (temple) here.