UBPO demands satellite autonomy for Bodos living outside BTC
From our Correspondent
KOKRAJHAR, March 17: The United Bodo People’s Organization (UBPO) on Tuesday said that it wanted satellite autonomy for Bodos living outside BTC area. It also demanded that the government should create grand Bodoland autonomous council for the Bodos and Bodo Kachari people living outside the BTC area.
Talking to a section of reporters in Kokrajhar, UBPO president Mihiniswar Basumatary, said that a delegation of UBPO called on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi recently in presence of PWD Minister Ajanta Neog at his official residence at Koidhara in Guwahati and submitted a memorandum containing eight-point charter of demands and urged him for immediate follow-up action on the demands. He said the Chief Minister assured the delegation to find an acceptable solution to the demands as early as possible. rzary said that Gogoi assured that he would take initiatives for official level discussion on the formation of autonomous council for the Bodos living in various districts of Assam. He said the Bodos demanded Bodoland state starting from Sankosh River in the west to Sadia in the east but the government signed an MoS with the Bodos comprising only four districts which hurt the sentiment of the Bodo people living outside BTC as they had also made tremendous contribution in the Bodoland movement. The Bodo people living outside BTC were being deprived of their rights and privileges in all spheres.
A memorandum to the Chief Minister was submitted by the UBPO demanding the granting of a grand autonomous council for the indigenous Bodo-Kachari Tribal people living outside the jurisdiction of the BTC. In their memorandum, they also demanded inclusion of the Boro-Kachari living within Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao autonomous districts of Assam in the list of ST (Hills) as per the Clause No-8 of the Bodo Accord, granting of permanent land pattas (settlement) to the indigenous Bodo-Kachari Tribal (ST) families under the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditiol Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006with immediate effect. Besides they also demanded for restoration of the alieted lands and ancestral territories of the tribal people within Tribal Belts and Blocks, TSP and Forest Areas and strict enforcement of the provisions of the Chapter (X) of the Assam Land and Revenue Manual, 1886 (Amended in 1947) in letter and spirit, urgent need of intervention of the Union government and the concerned State governments jointly for explation and to evolve a suitable permanent political solution of the vexed Assam –galand, Assam-Aruchal Pradesh and Assam-Meghalaya inter-State border disputes within the frame-work of the constitution and creation of separate directorate for Bodo medium education.