No new UT, village to be carved out of Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati: Rebutting media reports suggesting that a new Union Territory (UT) will be carved out of Assam as part of the ongoing talks leading to Bodo Accord, state finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that there is no provision for the creation of a UT or any village.

The senior BJP leader said, “The Central government has clarified that they do not have any such proposal tabled with them. The accord will be undertaken to maintain the territorial integrity of Assam, and no new village or area added under this accord.”

“The talks are going on, and if it is successful, then there will be permanent peace in Bodoland and Assam’s territorial integrity will not be disturbed,” added Sarma.

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Refering to a tweet by him on January 1 this year after meeting home minister Amit Shah where he said that Northeastern region is going to hear many good news, Sarma said, “After that we have seen Bru refugee settlement, I think we are progressing very well on the Bodo front and in so many other front we will see constructive engagement of the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah as far as Northeast in concerned.”

On the possibility of immunity to National Democratic Front of Bodoland (R) chairman Ranjan Daimary who has NIA cases against him and the likes of him, Sarma said, “I think when you ll read the Accord you’ll see the provisions, and no provision will violate the law of land.”

Significantly, on Friday, Daimary, flew to New Delhi to join the ongoing talks. He is serving life imprisonment in the 2008 serial bomb blasts case, and is out on four-week interim bail.

Sources in the Union home ministry informed EastMojo that the new Bodo peace accord, also involving all groups of the NDFB, will be signed probably in the first week of February this year.

Representatives from NDFB (R), NDFB (S), Bodo Sahitya Sabha and All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) have been meeting Centre-approved interlocutor AB Mathur separately during the last couple of days.

Within a week of signing a suspension of operations (SoO) agreement by the Saoraigwra faction of the NDFB with the Centre, over 600 rebels of eight insurgent group, including leaders like B Saoraigwra, G Bidai and K Batha came out from undisclosed camps along India-Bhutan border in Assam’s Kokrajhar district recently. NDFB-S is one of the few major insurgent groups active in Assam.

The development assumes significance as the Assam government organised an arms-laying down ceremony by members of militant outfits at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Auditorium in Guwahati.