The Nikhil Bishnupriya Manipuri Mahasabha demanded that the Bishnupriya Manipuris living in Assam be treated as an “indigenous” community.

An office-bearer of the Mahasabha said their delegation, accompanied by chairman of the Karimganj zilla parishad, Ashis Nath and MP of Karimganj (SC), Kripanath Mallah, met chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday and handed over a memorandum to him demanding declaration of Bishnupriya Manipuris as “indigenous people”.

They expressed anguish for not granting OBC status to the Bishnupriya Manipuri community by the Centre. The memorandum said due to this, they are deprived of all government facilities meant for the OBC communities.

The state government has already given OBC status to the Bishnupriya Manipuri community living in Assam.

Sonowal reportedly assured them to take up the matter with the Centre.

The president of the Mahasabha, Anil Sinha Gautam, who met Sonowal, said the chief minister had assured them to attend the Mahasabha’s three-day 46th session in February at Harinagar in Ratabari constituency of Karimganj district.

The Bishnupriya Manipuris are a group of Indo-Aryan people that are indigenous in Manipur and are also found in Assam, mainly in the Barak Valley, Tripura and northeastern part of Bangladesh and their language has Indo-Aryan origin.