Mizo Body Seeks More Autonomy

Aizawl, Sep 27 : A newly-formed non-political organization Zoramthar Forum has sought more administrative autonomy for the Mizo people.

In its memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister on September 18, Zoramthar Forum sought more administrative autonomy to check moral values and social structure of Mizos from further degradation.

Chaired by former Mizoram minister F Malsawma, the forum was formed in August for the benefits of all Mizo tribes scattered across the region, including Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The forum also wanted re-organisation of states based on the 1875 Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation so as to put all Mizo ethnic tribes across the region under one administrative unit.

To this effect, the forum urged the Union government to take steps to implement the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples Right in order to re-unite all the Mizo tribes who were divided by the British in three different countries, India, Burma and Bangladesh.

The organisation also sought inclusion of Mizo in the Major Indian Languages, not by dint of the size of the state and the people speaking the language, but by virtue of the uniqueness of the history and culture of the Mizo people.

The organisation also urged the Indian government to institutionalise a kitbutz like that of Israel and Maharasthra to uplift the people of Mizoram, about 80 per cent of whom still depend on primitive form of cultivation, the slash-and-burn method or jhumming.

The organisation also demanded the state get 70 per cent as loyalty from the states natural wealth.