ITANAGAR, May 18: The Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) threatened to organize a ‘state-wide’ mass movement if the report of the Fact-Finding Committee on Tawang Church wouldn’t be released within the next 15 days.
Addressing a press conference at the press club here on Wednesday, President ACF -Toko Teki informed that the unanimous decision to organize a ‘state-wide’ mass movement staging dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) office of all districts was decided among representatives of all denominations of the Christian community of the state in a meeting held on 16 May last.
He said that the Christian community has been appealing to the state government for an immediate and peaceful resolution of the Tawang church matter since 2020 through the submission of various representatives to the state government and the chairman of the committee. Unfortunately, the committee has been providing excuses for not submitting its status report on the matter. Therefore, ACF has decided to organize a ‘state-wide’ democratic movement, he added
On 17 May last, a memorandum is submitted to the Chief Minister (CM) Pema Khandu and the chairman of the committee serving 15 days ultimatum requesting to publish or provide the committee’s status report to ACF or face the ‘state-wide’ mass protest, informed Teki.
Meanwhile, ACF GS Tarh Miri informed that since 9 September 2020, ACF has been submitting various representations to the state government demanding to resolve the Tawang church issue. The forum had staged a peaceful protest at IG Park here on 2 November 2020 demanding the same.
Accordingly, on 12 November 2020, the state government formed a committee under the chairmanship of Environment and Forest Minister Mama Natung, he added
Earlier, ACF had submitted a memorandum claiming that the church was established in 1999 and a request for allotment of land was submitted in 2003 to the state government.
