GUWAHATI, Jan 1: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said there were some debatable issues like the cadastral survey of land in ‘Char’ (riverine) areas and discussions were being held with the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) for implementing the Justice (Retd) Biplab Sarma committee’s recommendations on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord to protect the interests of the state’s indigenous population.
Most recommendations of the committee will be implemented by the state government by April, the CM said during an interaction with journalists here.
He said the relationship between the different communities has improved considerably over the years and most of the issues would be resolved without any debate.
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“There are, however, issues like the cadastral survey in the ‘Char’ areas and we have to know how the Assamese community reacts to this. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is debatable with various sections wanting its review. We are holding discussions with the AASU on this and other issues”, he said.
A cadastral survey is a licensed surveyor’s official measurement of a property’s boundaries, dimensions, and other details. The survey results are used to create cadastral maps, which are a database of official information about land parcels.
‘We hope to implement the recommendations meant for the state government during the budget session of the state Assembly’, he added.
Referring to recruitment of indigenous people for government jobs, the CM said there is a need for a domicile policy for recruitment in the state as the high court usually quashes cases in favour of the local population by stating that the jobs are for people from the entire country.
The recommendations of the Biplab Sarma committee will apply only to the districts of the Brahmaputra Valley and not in the three districts of Barak Valley along with the Sixth Schedule areas of Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).
The committee’s report is divided into three parts — 40 recommendations for exclusive state implementation, 12 to be jointly implemented by both central and state governments, and 15 exclusively for the Centre.
Sarma had earlier said the state government and AASU will collaborate to implement the 40 recommendations related to land, culture, and linguistics along with the 12 others which are in the shared domain of the state and central governments.
The committee was set up in 2019 following widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and the report was submitted to then chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal in 2020 for handing over to Union home minister Amit Shah.
The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 after a six-year-long violent anti-foreigner movement. It stated, among other clauses, that names of all foreigners coming to Assam on or after March 25, 1971 would be detected and deleted from electoral rolls with steps taken to deport them. (PTI)
