Bodoland Employees' Federation demands withdrawal of FIR against BTC employees

KOKRAJHAR: The Bodoland Employees' Federation (BEF) has demanded withdrawal of the FIR lodged by United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) CWC member and RTI activist Prithviraj Narayan Dev Mech seeking fresh check of legal or illegal job appointments in BTC administration since 2005 onwards till date. The federation expressed resentment over the FIR and termed that it was 'anti-humanity and anti-people'.

The president of newly-formed BEF, Dipak Ramchiary said the FIR lodged against the employees of BTC since 2005 was unfortunate. He said they had nothing to say if the UPPL leader Prithiviraj Narayan Dev Mech had demanded check into certain cases of illegal appointments but seeking fresh inquiry by saying that all employees were illegally appointed was not at all acceptable.

Ramchiary said the BTC was an outcome of sacrifice of thousands of Bodo people and therefore, the BTC authority gave preference to the Bodoland movement victim families, ex-BLTs, widows who lost their husbands in the movement on compassionate ground, which could not be understood with myopic mentality. He said the Assam Government regularized over 30,000 employees engaged by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), who were family members of victims of the Assam Agitation, without proper procedure and thus there was nothing wrong in giving preference to Bodoland movement victim families.

Dev Mech had lodged an FIR on June 6, 2020 in Kokrajhar police station seeking a report on appointments made in BTC administration from 2005. Mech also sought reports about how many people were appointed legally or illegally under the shadow of political influence since 2005 till date.

Notably, 29 employees under the BTC Transport department were recently terminated from their jobs as they were illegally appointed in BTC, in the wake of a complaint lodged by Mech.

Leaders of Bodoland Employees' Federation demanded early withdrawal of the FIR lodged against them. The federation submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal through BTC Principal Secretary Siddarth Singh seeking employees' welfare in the BTC region. The federation said that Mech's FIR was politically motivated.

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