PDMB hails BJP's gesture of holding talks with NDFB (P)

From our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR, October 30: The People’s Democratic Movement for Boroland (PDMB) has expressed gratitude to the Union Home Minister Rajth Singh for showing his positive gesture towards finding a permanent solution to the 87 years aspiration of Boroland by inviting NDFB (P) for dialogue at political level on October 26 in New Delhi.

In a press statement, the joint secretary of the PDMB Bathou Raja Basumatary welcomed this initiative which has removed the clouds of doubts over the sincerity of the BJP-led NDA government on the legitimate long-standing Boro indigenous people’s pending issue of separate state of Boroland. He expressed happiness over the roles played by Chandra Mahan Patowary, the Minister of Transport, Government of Assam, and Hagrama Mahilary, the chief of BTC along with Biswajit Daimary, MP (RS) and Chandan Brahma, MLA from BPF who took active participation representing the local council government of BTC, while a four-member delegation led by B. Sungthagra, the president of NDFB (P), participated in this high-level talk.

“We have expressed our opinion earlier and again we reiterate that there is no reason why the dymic leadership of Prime Minister  rendra Modi at the Centre, Assam Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal and his strong able team in the State cannot solve this long-pending Boroland issue, while Hagrama Mahilary, the chief of BTC, can also play a facilitating role for the solution since BPF party has an alliance with BJP in Boroland,” the statement said, adding that since 1929 the Boro indigenous people of Assam had been on a continuous movement demanding a separate political entity in the northern bank of the mighty Brahmaputra from the Sankosh in the west to Sadiya in the east along the foot-hills of Bhutan and Aruchal Pradesh carving out of Assam. For the Boro indigenous people of Assam, it has been already 87 long years since their assertion of their political rights to have their own homeland to the Simon Commission in 1929. The government’s piecemeal solutions to solve the Boroland tangle on experimental basis with intermediary arrangements like BAC in 1993 and BTC in 2003 could not address the fundamental question and the dream of Boroland state has remained unfulfilled till date.

Basumatary said the Boroland issue has become the centre of the attention now for the entire tion which demands a concrete policy and the present BJP government in New Delhi and Dispur has taken a laudable step to find an amicable solution to end this long-pending issue by resuming the tripartite talks on Boroland from November, 2016. He appreciated the role of the State and the BTC council governments for facilitating the high-level talk of October 26 which has given a ray of hope towards finding an amicable settlement to the Boroland issue. He also appealed to the Government of India to invite another ceasefire group of NDFB led by D.R. bla to hold the ongoing peace-talk at a higher political level for the best interest of the Boroland issue.