MZP To Carry Out Census Of Chakmas in Mizoram

Aizawl, May 13 : The Federal Council meeting of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), the Mizo apex student body, resolved to conduct an elaborate census of the Chakmas in Mizoram.

The Federal Council comprises not only the leaders of the general and district headquarters, but also leaders of ethnicity-based student associations like the Hmar Students' Association, Siamsin Pawl Pi (SSP - Paite Students Organization), Lai, Mara and other ethnicity-based Mizo student organizations.

Student leaders maintained that after the then East Pakistan government constructed the Kaptai dam in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, many people belonging to the Chakma community were displaced and resettled in India's northeastern states, especially Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.

A separate autonomous district council - the Chakma Autonomous District Council - was created for the community by the Centre in 1972.

This encouraged more Chakmas to migrate to Mizoram, one of the student leaders participating in the meeting said, adding that this was the first time a separate autonomous council was created in the country for the Chakmas.

"There are many Chakmas who are Indian citizens who have been in Mizoram since before Independence and these people welcome our proposed census," said a Mizo student leader.

The MZP Federal Council meeting also resolved that the student body should make concerted efforts to ensure that Mizoram has a high court on its own as provided in the historic Mizo Accord signed between the Centre and the erstwhile underground Mizo National Front on June 30, 1986.