HC orders BAC polls in six months

GUWAHATI, January 22: The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam Government to hold the general election to the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) within a period six months. Delivering a judgement, the division bench consisting of Justice HK Sema and Justice D Biswas has castigated the State government of dilly-dallying with the BAC's election, which has never been held since it was created in 1993 after the signing of the Bodo Accord. The judgement came following a writ petition moved by Kankeswar Narzary, ex-chief of the BAC and Derhagra Mochahary, general secretary of the UBNLF, who were represented by noted lawyer Gautam Uzir. The court has made a scathing attack on the government. It said, "Inaction (on the BAC election) does not solve any problem, rather it breeds problems, cause chaos and confusion." This is noteworthy that the State government had dissolved the BAC in 1996 and set up an interim BAC which was also set aside to constitute an advisory council in April 2000 last to run the affairs of the BAC.