Process to include 98 villages in Bodoland Territorial Region underway

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: As part of the Bodo Peace Treaty Agreement signed in January 2020, the process to include 98 more villages into the BTR (Bodoland Territorial Region) from the adjacent districts is underway at New Delhi and Dispur.

The BTR Agreement has a clause for the inclusion of villages with substantial Bodo domination into the BTR and the exclusion of villages without Bodo domination from the BTR. The State Government formed a commission for inclusion into and exclusion from the BTR through a ground-level study.

According to sources, the government is working to include 98 villages in the BTR. The proposed inclusion of around 50 of the 98 villages has no objections from the MLAs concerned. There are hiccups in the remaining 48 villages. A few legislators have expressed their concern over the move.

According to official sources, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, now camping in New Delhi, has discussed the issue with MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) and IB (Intelligence Bureau) officials.

BTC CEM (Chief Executive Member) Promod Boro met Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently. He requested Shah to implement the clause for the inclusion of Bodo-dominated villages into the BTR, besides other clauses. And the issue gained momentum after Boro's plea to the Union Minister.

According to sources, the basic principle was to include Bodo-dominated villages in the BTR adjacent to its border. However, now the BTC has demanded the inclusion of a few isolated Bodo-dominated villages and villages far away from the BTR border.

Other key clauses of the BTR agreement are – the withdrawal of non-heinous crime cases against members of NDFB factions, ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of each person killed during the Bodo movement, a central development package of Rs 1,500 crore to the BTC for specific development of Bodo areas, raising the number of BTC constituencies to 60 from the existing 40, setting up of an SAI (Sports Authority of India) centre at Udalguri, Baksa and Chirang, etc.

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