Guwahati, Sep 25 (PTI) The Assam government and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Wednesday discussed the implementation of Justice (Retd) Biplab Sarma committee’s recommendations on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord to protect the interests of the indigenous population.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, along with his cabinet colleagues and AASU representatives, analysed the recommendations at the state secretariat.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Sarma said, “It was made clear that the recommendations cannot be implemented in the three districts of the Barak Valley and the autonomous councils under the Sixth Schedule areas without the explicit consent of the people in those regions.” The recommendations will apply only to the districts of the Brahmaputra Valley and not in the three districts of Barak Valley along with the Sixth Schedule areas of Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).
Sarma explained that the committee’s report is divided into three parts – 40 recommendations for exclusive state implementation, 12 to be jointly implemented by both central and state governments, and 15 exclusively for the Centre.
“The state government and AASU will collaborate to implement the 40 recommendations related to land, culture, and linguistics,” he added.
Regarding the definition of an indigenous Assamese, Sarma noted that the committee recommended using 1951 as a cutoff date in specific cases under Clause 6, but “this should not be assumed as a general cutoff for all day-to-day activities.” The committee was established in 2019 following widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, and the report was submitted to then Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in 2020 for presentation to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 after a six-year anti-foreigner movement, which stipulated that all foreigners arriving in Assam after March 25, 1971, would be identified and removed from electoral rolls, with measures taken for their deportation. PTI DG DG MNB
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