GUWAHATI, Dec 12 ? The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), formed under the provisions of the amended Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India following the signing of a peace accord between the State and Central Governments and Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT), completed one year of existence on December 7, but till date it has not received the funds promised by the Centre for infrastructure development of the area and the schemes submitted by the Council are still pending with the Department for Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER).
Talking to The Assam Tribune, the Deputy Chief of the Council, Chandan Brahma admitted that the functioning of the BTC is yet to be streamlined and pointed out that the delay on the part of the Government in posting of officers and transfer of departments delayed the whole process. He said that the departments were transferred to the Council only in November and the Central Government is yet to release the promised funds.
The Centre promised to release an amount of Rs 100 crore a year for a period of five years for infrastructure development in the BTC area and the Council submitted 35 schemes for the financial years 2003-04 and 2004-05 giving stress on road communication, protection from floods and erosion, construction of a new 100-bed hospital etc.
Brahma said that till date, the DoNER has not sanctioned any of the scheme and the Council has now demanded that the Government of India should evolve a new mechanism to expedite the process of releasing funds. The BTC is of the view that the funds to be released by the Centre should be routed through the Ministry of Home Affairs instead of the DoNER.
The Deputy Chief of the BTC said that the Council had received Rs 40 crore from the State plan funds, of which, Rs 27 crore was sanctioned only recently and with the available funds, the Council had taken up schemes like repair and renovation of school buildings, renovation of hospitals, providing equipment and medicine to hospitals, improvement of the condition of important roads etc.
Though the elections to the BTC should have been held within six months from the day the interim council assumed office, even the process of delimitation of the constituencies is to be completed and it would take some more time before the polls can be held.
Brahma revealed that the interim council has already passed a resolution and requested the State Government to take immediate steps to hold the polls. He said that the State Government had now decided that the elections to the Council would be conducted by the State Election Commission and it would be the responsibility of the Commission to complete the delimitation of the constituencies.
One of the main clauses of the accord signed between the State and Central Governments and the BLT was to grant ST(H) status to the Bodos living in the Karbi Anglong district and that issue is yet to be addressed. Brahma said that for that a Bill had to be passed in the Parliament and ?we are pressing the Centre to do so. We want all the clauses of the Accord to be implemented as soon as possible.?
The rehabilitation of the 2600 former cadres of the BLT may pose a problem in the days to come. Brahma said that about 600 of the ex-BLT cadres have cleared the interviews for appointment in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) and they are likely to be appointed soon.
He said that efforts are on to provide employment opportunities to all the ex cadres of the BLT through agro-based schemes. He revealed that though the Centre had promised to pay a monthly stipend to the militants who laid down arms for a period of one year, they are not receiving the same regularly and in fact, most of them had received the stipend only for three months. He said that the BTC had already taken up the matter with the Central Government. The cases against the ex-BLT cadres have also not been withdrawn so far, he added.
At the time of assuming office, the BTC executive body announced its decision to give stress on human resource development and Brahma said that the Council held a series of seminars to evolve means to improve the standard of education in the BTC area.
He revealed that a number of posts of teachers in the Bodo medium schools were lying vacant, but the Council was not in a position to appoint teachers without the approval of the State level empowered committee. ?We have submitted the requirement to the empowered committee and hope that we shall get the clearance soon,? he added.