GUWAHATI, Dec 22 ? Peeved at the failure of the State and Central Governments to keep the commitment of holding tripartite talks on implementation of the Assam Accord at the level of the Prime Minister within December 21, the All Assam Students? Union (AASU) has threatened to launch a fresh movement for implementation of the Accord and scrapping of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act from January.
When the AASU threatened to disrupt the visit of the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to the State on November 22 to flag off the India-ASEAN car rally in protest against the decision of the Central Government to retain the IMDT Act, the Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi convened a meeting with the AASU and assured that the Prime Minister would hold a tripartite talk on the issues within a month. The Central Government also issued a press statement with the promise.
The Chief Minister also promised that he would hold a meeting with the AASU ten days ahead of the tripartite talk to finalise the steps to be taken by the State Government on implementation of the Accord. But the promises remained on paper only, as the promised tripartite talks did not materialise within the stipulated time.
Talking to The Assam Tribune today, AASU president Prabin Boro said that they are yet to receive any intimation from either the State or the Central Government about the promised tripartite talk at the Prime Minister?s level, ?which forced us to think that the Government is not sincere on implementing the Accord.?
He said that the Chief Minister also failed to hold the promised meeting and ? if the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister?s Office do not keep the promises, how can we believe their sincerity?? He also pointed out that as the Central and State Governments failed to keep their promises on holding talks, there is no guarantee of keeping promises of implementing the Accord. He said that the AASU would wait till the end of this year before deciding to launch a fresh movement.
Boro said that the State Government has a role to play in implementing the Accord and the failures of the State should be discussed by the Chief Minister as soon as possible. He pointed out it is the responsibility of the State Government to update the National Register of Citizens, 1951 and the Centre promised to provide funds for the same. But in the last four years, the State Government only managed to start the process of computerisation of the existing NRC in Dhubri district.
He said that there were contradictory statements by different departments of the State Government in this regard as the Minister of State for Planning and Development Himanta Biswa Sarma told the AASU delegation in presence of the Chief Minister that there was no shortage of funds for the project, while, on the other hand, the State Home Department claimed that it did not have funds to carry out the job to get the reimbursement from the Centre.
The AASU president said that the funds for construction of border roads and fencing are given by the Centre, but the State failed to execute the job properly, while, the State Government is yet to give its views on providing constitutional safeguard to the indigenous people of the State. The Central and State Governments had agreed on principle the need for granting constitutional protection to the indigenous people of the State, but the State failed to give its views on the definition of indigenous people and the number of seats in the Parliament, State Assembly and the local bodies to be kept reserved for the indigenous people.
Boro revealed that if the promised tripartite talk at Prime Minister?s level indeed take place, the AASU would raise the demand for granting special category state status to Assam. He also expressed the view that at the time of signing of the Assam Accord, the then leaders of the AASU committed a mistake by not forcing the Centre to spell out the constitutional safeguards to be given to the indigenous people of Assam. He also said that the then leaders of the AASU should also have pressed for scrapping of the IMDT Act.
Reacting to the Prime Minister?s support to the Act, Boro said that the Statements of the Prime Minister in support of the IMDT Act during his visit to the State last month were unfortunate. ?If the Prime Minister has the courage, he should extend the Act to other States of the country,? Boro challenged.