Massive protest in Rongpur, VIP road blocked; CRPF jawans force protesters off the road to restore vehicular traffic 

The residents of Rongpur area in Silchar have launched a massive protest against the deputy commissioner’s notification to remove around 8000 names from the Municipality voters’s list. These voters traditionally voted in either Ward No. 5 or 6 during Municipality elections. The agitating population has blocked the road VIP road that connects the town with Airport. Additional Deputy Commissioner-Cachar, Various Police officials tried to negotiate the matter with them, however, the protesters refused to cooperate.

The agitation started around 10:00 AM in the morning and the approach of both the bridges (Rongpur side) in Sadarghat has been blocked. “We are letting all essential services like Ambulance, Water Tanker and all pass, we are not stopping any students from reaching their institutions, we are not creating any violence here. We are on a peaceful protest and the protest will continue till the district administration withdraws the notification to make us residents of Gram Panchayat area,” said Rupesh Das, foreman of the Demand Association.

He added, “The way our names were randomly removed from the Municipality voters’ list just before the Municipality election is completely unjust. We demand justice and we want deputy commissioner to withdraw the notification.”

Another senior member of the Demand Association said, “A few individuals in order to meet their vested interest conspired and got the names removed from Municipality voters’ list. The exclusion is so random that you have one part of an area in Municipality and the other one in Gram Panchayat. They have not done any geographical or demographical analysis before removing the names from the voters’ list and overnight declared that they are now residents of this area is supposed to accept it.”

As per the latest available information, at around 11:45 AM, CRPF jawans pushed off the protesters from the road to restore vehicular traffic.