FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
KOKRAJHAR, Jan 4: The All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) on Monday expressed concern over the declaration of Bodo Kachari Autonomous Council (BKAC) on January 1 by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for the Bodo people residing outside BTC area. The ABSU feels that the autonomous council declared by Gogoi lacks constitutiol validity.
In a press statement, ABSU general secretary Lawrence Islary said that the Bodo people living outside BTC area were deprived of development and protection since Independence but this kind of temporary arrangement without constitutiol validity would not be a permanent solution to any ethnic problem. He said, “We have witnessed the development councils, autonomous councils and Sixth Schedule councils in Assam and their insufficiency in addressing the socio-economic issues.” He said that for the first time the tiolist organizations of the Bodos had totally been ignored by the government before taking such an initiative.
Islary said the ABSU would observe the modality of the proposed arrangement before giving any opinion. In the same context the union expressed concern over Bodo and tribal unity after the formation of the declared council. Another issue is the nomenclature of the council as ‘Bodo Kachari’, the word that is used to denote the sub tribe of the Bodos and other tribal groups of Assam while all the tribal people have their own single identity and council of their own, he said adding that the nomenclature of Bodo Kachari was unclear as the declared council would be exclusively for the Bodos and the Bodos residing in Assam and India have been identified as Bodo in the Constitution of India, not as Bodo Kachari. He also said the nomenclature of Bodo Kachari itself was contradictory and divisive for the Bodo community. He further said that ignoring all the tiolist organizations of the Bodos in the entire process was not a good sign.