From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: In an apparent attempt to repair the strained ties with ally Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday gave an assurance to the Bodo political party that house guards and PSOs of the Executive Members (EMs) and Members of Autonomous Council (MAC) in Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) would be restored.
The Chief Minster gave the assurance to the legislators of the BPF who met his at his office here this afternoon.
It was revealed by senior BPF legislator and a minister in Gogoi’s cabinet Chandan Brahma following the legislators’ meeting with the Chief Minister.
The ties between the ruling Congress and the BPF which is in power in the BTC, was at stake after Assam police arrested a senior BPF leader and an EM in the BTC Mono Kumar Brahma after recovery of two illegal AK-47 assault rifles and 60 rounds of ammunition from his residence in the violence-hit Kokrajhar district.
The weapons were recovered as part of the special drive launched to seize illegal weapons available in the BTC area where communal riot involving Bodos and Muslims and sporadic incidents of killing have become a bane of life since July this year.
Earlier, the administration in Kokrajhar district had withdrawn the PSOs and house guards provided by Assam Police to all the Executive Members and Members of Autonomous Council (MACs).
The BPF which is in power in the BTC, has 11 MLAs in the Assam Assembly. The party has been the only ally of ruling Congress in Assam since 2006.
However, after the arrest of the BTC Executive Member Mono Kumar Brahma, the BPF expressed its willingness to sever ties with the ruling Congress and it was also infuriated by certain remarks made by Assam government’s Parliamentary Secretary (Home Affairs) and a senior Congress legislator, Bhupen Bora, regarding the ‘unsatisfactory role’ played by the BPF in containing the violence in the BTC area.
The Parliamentary Secretary was sent to the BTC area after eruption of sporadic killings in Kokrajhar district since November 10 last.
The BTC legislator Chandan Brahma informed that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also assured that the Parliamentary Secretary Bhupen Bora would be told not to make remarks against the BPF and its leaders.