NEW DELHI, May 16 ? In keeping with the understanding arrived at the last round of tripartite talks on the Bodo issue, the Assam Government has submitted a draft agreement on the proposed Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) to the Centre, highly placed sources in the Home Ministry told this newspaper. But submission of the draft is unlikely to hasten the resolution of the vexed problem, as the State Government?s plan has skirted all the contentious issues dogging the negotiations with the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT).
According to sources, the submitted draft for instance has not spelled out the demarcated boundary of the BT areas and has instead offered the notification of 1999 issued by the then AGP regime, though that has already been rejected by the Bodoland movement leaders. Given the hardening of stand by the BLT yesterday, the latest offer by the Assam Government, the Home Ministry officials here fear, my lead to further complications. The Assam Government submitted the draft on Wednesday to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which is currently examining it. While demarcation of the BT areas may prove to be a hard nut to crack, the modification to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution providing for constitutional safeguard to the non-Bodos was expected to be ironed out smoothly. A committee of officials has been constituted to work out the proposals.
That the Assam Government favoured the 1999 notification was made clear by State Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi himself to Union Minister, LK Advani at his meeting early this month. The Bodo leaders, on the other hand, desire that the demarcated boundary should be created on the basis of both the 1993 and 1999 notifications. Assam Government claims that according to the map of the proposed BT areas submitted by the BLT to it, a number of villages were included in the BAC in 1993. Out of them, 353 were excluded in 1999. But 107 of them were again later returned to the BAC.
In addition, the BLT further sought the villages already included in the BAC in 1993, besides Bijni town as well as six nearby villages and three additional villages under Gossaigaon subdivision. Accordingly, four adjacent districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baska and Udalguri were proposed to be created for inclusion in the proposed BTC. The resolution of the southern boundary of the BT areas holds the key to resolution of the tangle. Though the 1999 notification paved the way for inclusion of the 10 km of the border areas along the Indo-Bhutan border, it also took away over 300-odd villages. The president of the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU), Rahi Ram Narzary, during his last visit had categorically rejected the possibility of accepting the 1999 notification. The 1999 notification will not be accepted and if the State Government insists on it, there will be a strong reaction to it among the Bodo people, he had cautioned.