From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: The authority in the Bodoloand Teritorial Council (BTC) in Assam has called for a phase-wise rehabilitation of violence-hit to ensure that no outsiders get rehabilitated in the area taking advantage of the adversity.
Assam government has appealed to violence-hit inmates in relief camps to return to their villages by August 15 under tight security arrangement, but the BTC authority wants a phase-wise and systematic rehabilitation of inmates of relief camps so that no outsiders could get settled down in the BTC area ( a tribal belt) taking advantage of the situation.
The BTC’s decision for a phase-wise rehabilitation plan is also being supported by the influential All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU). The BTC has demanded that the credential of violence-hit in relief camps should be verified first before they are rehabilitated in areas under the BTC.
A highly-placed source in the BTC said that the executive council of the BTC apprehended that among such a large number of inmates in refugee camps, some might not have been displaced because of violence s, but have come to relief camps from areas outside the BTC so as to get rehabilitated in BTC areas under the prevailing circumstances.
So the BTC has decided that there should be rehabilitation in phases. As per its decision, those violence-hit who own land in the BTC area should be rehabilitated immediately in the first phase. Those who do not have land but their names appear in the voters’ lists should be kept in the relief camps till the BTC and the State Government arrive at an agreement on their fate. On the other hand, those who do not have land in the BTC area and whose names also do not appear in the voters’ lists should not be rehabilitated in the BTC area.
According to the BTC Accord which was signed with Government of India , only those who used to own land in BTC areas on the day of signing of the Accord i.e. February 10, 2003, will continue to have land rights and no non-tribal outsiders will be able to acquire land in the area after February 10.
In the light of this particular clause in the Accord, the BTC rulers want proper verification of credential of violence-hit before rehabilitation.
A senior leader of the ABSU while approving the rider put by the BTC authority for rehabilitation of violence-hit, said that similar conditions were put by the ABSU for rehabilitation of violence-hit after the 2008 Bodo-Muslims clashes in Udalguri district.
Then the chief minister Tarun Gogoi sought three months time to implement it, but did nothing afterwards, the ABSU leader said.
What is worrying the BTC authority and the ABSU is that some doubtful persons suspected to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh may get rehabilitated in the process and that would jeopardize the demography of the BTC area.