Tripartite talks held for separate Bodoland

To ensure the overall development of Bodos in Assam, a tripartite meeting was held recently in Delhi after a gap of two years between the Centre, the Assam Government and the All Bodo Students Union.

Several mass rallies and demonstrations have been staged by Bodo tribals, All Bodo Students' Unions and other organizations demanding a separate state of Bodoland within Assam.

The long standing issue has resulted in intensified violence and struggle in Kokrajhar so far. Carving out a solution to this unending problem remains a major issue.

A 15-member team of representative Bodo groups participated in the talks. Moreover, the meeting was called by the Centre as ABSU and its allied movement groups carried out several agitations seeking a separate Bodoland state under Article 2 and 3 of the Indian Constitution.

"In the talks, the long pending issue that has not been solved as yet was discussed. We seek an immediate solution to the pending demand for a separate Bodoland. We have raised the issue of much needed constitutional safeguard of the art and culture and land rights of the Bodos. They have ensured that the talks will continue on this matter with a positive note and on a political level .We don't want to stretch the issue, so we urged the government to undertake policy decision for immediate resolution of the issue," ABSU President Promod Bodo said.

The high level meeting was chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh in presence of Joint Secretary (NE) Satyendra Garg, Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal and other dignitaries.

While chairing the tripartite talk, Rajnath Singh said that the Centre is committed to ensuring equal development of all the communities including the Bodos and that all appropriate measures will be taken by the government to ensure the overall development of Bodos living in Assam.

During the meeting, the clause wise implementation of the Assam accord for providing constitutional and economic safeguards to the people of Assam was also discussed in presence of Adviser of the All Assam Student Union (AASU) Samujjal Bhattacharya.

"Home Minister Rajnath Singh has already cleared in the meeting that no such decision will be taken by the government that would hamper the implementation of the Assam Accord. On the other hand, the prospect of raising a Special Task Force at district and state levels for detection of illegal immigrants was also discussed.

We also suggested that a bilateral agreement should be signed between the Governmentt of India and Bangladesh for deporting illegal immigrants,"Bhattacharyya said.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said, "We have started a meaningful and good beginning to the implementation of the Assam Accord. The talks have ended on a positive note, as we have discussed in detail clause-wise time bound implementation of the accord. We have also discussed with our Bodo representatives and it will continue and we have ensured them that the government is committed to equal development of all communities including the Bodo community and we should together work for the overall development of Assam."

Later, Singh informed that the dialogue between ABSU, the Centre and the state government will continue at the official level for a permanent and early solution.

Moreover, prior to the implementation of the Assam Accord, Singh stressed on the need to form a committee with representatives from the central government, Assam government and AASU to ensure time-bound implementation of all clauses.