ITANAGAR, Sep 14: Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) today asserted that it will never accept the Centre’s decision to grant citizenship to the Chakma-Hajong refugees in the state and demanded the resignation of Union Minister for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju for deliberately failing to safeguard the rights of the indigenous people.
‘We are not against the granting of citizenship to Chakma –Hajong but first they should be taken out of the state and we cannot compromise on it,’ said APCC President Takam Sanjay while speaking to reporters at Rajiv Bhawan today.
‘Arunachal in 1950s and Arunachal today is totally different. Moreover during UPA –I and UPA –II we kept the refugees as refugees but never brought the issue of citizenship so blaming Congress is baseless,’ said Sanjay.
He further added that during ‘All Party Meeting’ held recently, APCC had clearly objected granting citizenship and urged the government to follow-up the High-power Committee constituted during UPA-II under his regime.
He also asked the state government to produce White Paper on the new Tibetan Rehabilitation Policy-2014 framed by the BJP Government at the Centre. “MoS Rijiju did not take any consideration of other two MPs not even of the Chief Minister in both the refugee cases so he must resign on moral grounds for putting the rights of indigenous people at stake,’ claimed Sanjay.