The Assam Cabinet on Thursday decided to exempt members of the Tea Tribe, Moran, Motok, and Scheduled Tribe communities from the two-child norm under the State Population Policy. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting held at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Guwahati, chaired by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Chief Minister Sarma stated that the exemption aims to protect smaller indigenous groups. “We have relaxed the two-child norm for tribal, tea tribe, and Moran-Matok community people because they are micro communities. Restricting their population could threaten their existence in the future. After consulting social scientists, we concluded that the policy must be relaxed for these four communities,” he said.
During the meeting, the cabinet also approved the tabling of the Tiwari Commission Report on the 1983 Nellie massacre in the upcoming November session of the Assam Legislative Assembly.
The cabinet cleared an increase in the project cost of Assam Petro-Chemicals Limited’s 500 TPD Methanol Plant and 200 TPD Formalin Plant from ₹1,709.18 crore to ₹2,267.22 crore, with the state government providing additional equity.
In another decision, the cabinet granted in-principle approval for issuing land pattas to tea garden workers residing in labour lines.
For the education sector, the service period required for regularisation of teachers under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) special recruitment drive has been reduced from five years to three years, benefiting nearly 3,000 teachers. The mandatory service period for male teachers before transfer has also been lowered from 10 years to seven years.
