Dispur rejects Directorate of Education in BTC; BSS worried

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 5: Despite repeated pleas and intervention by the Governor, the State Fince Department has rejected the file for a separate  Directorate of Education in the BTC. The file was at an advanced state as everything was on a positive note. Is this a snub to the Governor?

The Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS), the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) and other Bodo organizations have all along been demanding a separate Directorate of Education in the BTC. After repeated pleas, the State Fince Department was on record sending a letter to the BTC through the Department for the Development of Plain Tribes and Other Backward Classes that it had no objection in creating posts for the proposed Directorate of Education in the BTC if the Bodo politico-administrative setup can make funds from its Plan Budget for the salary of the new posts. It was followed by a go-ahead sigl from the Department of Secondary Education that if the BTC can shoulder the burden of salaries on its own, it can create the posts. The BTC made no delay to let the Fince Department know through the Department for the Development of Plain Tribes and Other Backward Classes that it was ready to shoulder the burden of salary on its own. “Principal Secretary for Fince, Sumit Kumar Khare, however, rejected the file for reasons best known to him,” said BSS general secretary Kamalakanta Mushahary in a statement issued to the press today.

The BSS has three pet demands – implementation of Bodo as the official language in the BTAD area in accordance with the Bodo Accord, a separate Directorate of Education for Bodo Medium Schools in the BTC and creating posts for that, and a separate Directorate of Education for Bodo and the Languages of other Tribes of the State.

A chronology of events on the issue says that a number of Bodo organizations met the Governor and sought his intervention on the issue when he visited Kokrajhar on June 12. On August 11, a team of BSS had a meeting with the Education Minister and his top officers on the demand. On September 8, the BSS team met the Governor again on the demand. The Governor did assure the BSS team that he would call the Education Minister and his officials to his office. He even issued a directive to the Department for the Development of Plain Tribes and Other Backward Classes towards that end. On October 30, the Governor called the Education Minister and his officials to his office where the BSS leaders had a face-to-face discussion on the issue with the minister and his officials.