KOKRAJHAR, Jan 28: The Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), an autonomous administrative authority in Assam’s Bodo tribal areas, has demanded its inclusion in Article 280 of the Constitution to get more funds for the development of some remote districts that suffered decades of insurgency and are now on a peace path.
Pramod Boro, the chief executive member of the BTR’s governing body Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), told a group of journalists here that he was “trying to sustain” the peace that was achieved after four decades of instability, fear, uncertainty and threat.
Monday marked the successful five years of the tripartite Bodo Peace Accord inked between the Bodo groups, the Centre and the Assam government on January 27, 2020.
Related Posts:
“We have managed to bring back our people to normalcy. There is continuous peace in Bodoland now,” Boro, a former president of the All Bodo Students Union, told reporters here.
“What we need now”, the 49-year-old head of the BTC said, “is policy and funding. We have huge potential here and we need technology, knowledge, financial support to make Bodoland like any other part of the country”.
“Funding is a problem… there are no banks or businessmen here (due to decades of Bodo insurgency)… we are trying to bring them back,” he said.
Boro said the total annual budgetary allocation for the BTC is Rs 800 crore, about 12 per cent of Assam’s total budget.
“We have demanded from the Centre that Article 280 should be implemented in the Council (BTC) area…so that we could get direct funds from the Union government. The funds will come under a scheme. This was also a clause in the 2020 peace accord.
“Then only we can do our development process. The Council will also be strengthened (this way)…”, he said.
Inclusion under Article 280 will address “many of our financial problems”, Boro said as he underlined that the BTC has humongous work to create infrastructure and ensure basic facilities for the BTR residents.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said he is hopeful that the Centre will introduce the 125th Constitution Amendment Bill in the upcoming Parliament session that aims to devolve more powers to tribal autonomous councils like the one in Bodo-dominated areas of the state.
Speaking to the press on the sidelines of an event held here to mark five years of the Bodo Peace Accord of 2020, Sarma said his government will work to “consolidate” the gains of this tripartite pact in a manner that it does not “derail” the peace process.
The chief minister was accompanied by Pramod Boro.
“There is a proposal…we call it the 125th Amendment of the Constitution. The state government is supporting the amendment.”
“The government of India is in the process of bringing that Constitutional amendment. The Standing Committee discussion is over. Both of us (BTC chief Boro) are hopeful that we will see something positive in the coming Budget Session,” he said.
The Constitution (125th Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by the Union government in 2019. The Bill seeks to amend provisions related to the Finance Commission and the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Sixth Schedule relates to the administration of tribal areas in the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram.
Sarma, when asked about the BTC seeking more funds for the initiation of development works, said money is “not an issue” but it is his belief that giving rather than taking should be the way.
Pointing towards Boro, Sarma said “we will work together” to ensure the overall development of the BTR. The chief minister also said the Council is getting funds from three sources — Assam government, the Centre and through their own avenues.
“Six thousand people came to the mainstream (due to the 2020 accord). Had they got weapons you can think of the consequences. There has been no armed person over the last 3.5 years in this region,” he said
“Leave alone violence, there has not been any democratic agitation. BTR is now an island of peace,” he said.
Sarma said the narrative of Bodo, non-Bodo has ended.
Asked if his party will fight the upcoming elections in BTR alongside Boro, Sarma said the state BJP president and the BTC chief will decide on these issues and that it is a matter of “strategy”.
“Last time we contested independently and came together post the polls. The BJP has a strong presence here but we have not claimed the post of the chief of deputy chief (of the BTC). This is the BJP way of not interfering with the development of tribals,” he said.
He said Assam and BTR were “not different” and all of them shared prosperity. (PTI)
