The Tai Ahom National Council Memo Scheduling

The claim of the Ahom to be included in the list of Scheduled Tribe (Plains) is further
justified by the new trends of developments that have been taking place in Upper Assam, the
core of Ahom settlements, and also in its surroundings. The erstwhile districts of Sibsagar and
Lakhimpur now bifurcated into seven districts viz. Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Dibrugarh,
Tinisukia, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji that comprise Upper Assam have the concentration of Ahom
population with certain pockets in the districts of Morigaon, Sonitpur, Nogaon, and Karbi
Anglong. The Upper Assam districts are rich is tea, petroleum and coal. The tea gardens occupy
highest acreage of highland and engage and employed the highest number of worker. Of these
the majority are directly engaged in tea production that includes labourer, clerical staff, and
managerial personals. The number of labour population is the highest in number. The number of
clerical and managerial persons constitutes only a small percentage. The tea garden population is
in the organized sector of plantation industry and they are mainly concentrated within the tea
gardens and are provided with housing accommodation, water supply, electricity, hospital
facility, primary education, and road communication. They also receive certain quota of ration at
concession rates. Besides, the wage of industrial employees is assured.
The petroleum industry covers a wide belt of territory along the southern plains mainly in
the district of Dibrugarh, Tinisukia, Sivagar and Golaghat. Oil explorations are still going on,
and it appears that these districts are floating on oil. The two refineries are the Digboi, the oldest
and the Numaligarh, a new one, are located in Upper Assam. These refineries directly engage a
few thousand of workers in the oil production. The majority of the workers are from outside the
State, only a handful of them are local and indigenous. Most of the technically qualified are
drawn from outside. The Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) under the Government of
India is engaged in the exploration and extraction of oil with its headquarters at Sivasagar
engages employees, both of permanent category and wage basis, and their number runs to several
thousands. The percentage of Ahom in oil is small. Again, since oil is found in the agricultural
land or land under cultivation, such land has been acquired by the ONGC. Compensation is ,
however, paid but they are deprived of their land or are uprooted from the land. Being
agricultural people they could choose no alternative avenue of employment.
Another important mineral found in Upper Assam is coal but mainly concentrated at the
foothill areas along the Patkai hill range covering a distance of about 160 km. But extraction of
coal is done in the Ledo-Margherita and Jaipur-Naginimora areas and is mainly done by opencast