Bodoland territorial area districts and border demarcation started
Guwahati:
Assam’s Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday that the state had accelerated the process of implementing the third Bodo Accord signed in January this year. The process for two major decisions in the agreement – the renaming of the districts of the Bodoland territorial area and the demarcation of its borders – has already begun, Sarma told reporters.
He said the Governor of Assam, Jagdish Mukhi, had already accepted the four districts – Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri – which made up the BTAD to be renamed Bodoland Territorial Region and that a commission to demarcate its border had also been incorporated.
According to the agreement signed between the representatives of the Bodo organizations with the center and the government of Assam, a commission will examine the villages around the boundaries of the BTR and will include those that have more than 50% of the Bodo population and exclude those already in the interior if it has less than 50 percent of Bodo’s population.
“The committee will decide which villages to include and which to exclude. However, only border villages can be excluded, not those in central BTR areas,” Sarma said.
The commission is supposed to restructure the council constituencies from 40 to 60. Another important issue decided on the agreement will be headed by BTC administrator Rajesh Prasad while Jayanta Basumatary of Bodo Students Union, one of the signatories. of the Bodo accord on behalf of the Bodo side and Dalim bayan, on behalf of the non-Boro side.
“We are waiting for the recommendations of the commission in six months, then, within a month, we will start working to make the Bodo language an associated language of the state, another of the demands,” Sarma said.
He said the Bodo Kachari Territorial Social Welfare Council – for people from Bodo in other districts – will also be implemented soon after the commission’s report.
Mr Sarma said the decisions were taken during a meeting last Sunday between Home Secretary Amit Shah and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Delhi. Mr. Sarma was also present at the meeting.
Putting an end to speculation about the BTC elections, Mr Sarma said it would only be held in December after conducting a risk analysis on Bihar’s elections which are expected to be held in three phases from October 28. .
“The conditions will not be favorable for Assam to hold elections until November 30. We will take an experience of the elections in Bihar and only then we will decide to hold one,” Sarma said.
The current council has been suspended because elections, which were scheduled to be held in April, have been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its administration is currently overseen by the governor.
