GUWAHATI, Feb 13 — The State Cabinet today formally gone its green signal to formation of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) by safeguarding the rights of the non-Bodos. The Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi this morning, resolved that the State Government has no objection to creation of the BTC under the modified Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India with adequate and specific safeguard of the rights of the non-Bodos.
Talking to newsmen after the meeting, the Health Minister, Dr Bhumidhar Barman, who is leading the Cabinet sub-committee on Bodo issue, said the State Government was of the view that the right of the non-Bodos including political, social, economic, land and settlement, employment, official language etc must be protected. He said the Government would soon forward its recommendations to the Centre for necessary action. Dr Barman revealed that the Central Government would have to bring a bill for amending the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to provide adequate safeguards to the non-Bodos and the concurrence of the State Government would have to be taken for the same. He said that the Centre would also hold discussion with the Bodo and non-Bodo groups before finalising the draft bill for amending the Sixth Schedule.
The Cabinet, however, did not finalise the boundary of the proposed BTC and authorised the sub-committee to continue dialogue with different groups to finalise it. Dr Barman said that the dialogue with the Bodo and the non-Bodo groups would continue in order to arrive at a consensus on the boundary issue. However, the admitted that the Cabinet today did not fix any time limit for finalising the boundary of the proposed BTC. The minister in-charge of Welfare of Plains Tribes and Backward Classes, Sri Bharat Chandra Narah, who is also a member of the Cabinet sub-committee, said that efforts were on to amicably settle the boundary dispute. He said the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) had already submitted a map of the proposed BTC. The non-Bodo groups had also submitted maps. “The State Government would try to reduce the differences between the Bodos and non-Bodos before finalising the boundary of the proposal BTC to avoid any conflict in future.”
Sri Narah described the Cabinet decision as a major step towards solution of the Bodo problem. He said that the previous AGP government had decided on principle to create the BTC but it failed to issue any notification in this regard. The State Cabinet also had a detailed discussion on fiscal reforms today. The Cabinet meeting continued for more than three hours.