GUWAHATI: Anti-influx forum, Prabajan Virodhi Manch has questioned the Assam government’s move to legally examine the Clause 6 committee’s report when the committee, led by a former judge of Gauhati High Court, comprised legal experts as members.
“The committee was chaired by Justice Biplab Sarma, who is a former judge of Gauhati High Court, and also comprised Advocate General of Assam, Ramesh Borpatragohain and the Advocate General of Arunachal Pradesh, Nilay Dutta as members. Are they not legal experts? Does the state government not consider its own Advocate General who is a Constitutional functionary to be a legal expert?” Manch convener, Upamanyu Hazarika asked.
In a statement issued on Monday, Hazarika alleged that “the manner in which the state government, the chief minister and Himanta Biswa Sarma keep making self-contradictory statements, clearly demonstrated that the entire exercise of protecting indigenous rights through constitution of the Clause 6 committee was nothing but cheating the indigenous people.”
The high-level committee constituted by the Centre for implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord had submitted its report to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on February 25, 2020.
Sonowal had received it on behalf of the Union home minister. However, the report, according to a reply by the Union minister of state for home in Parliament last week, was yet to be received by the Centre and that the state government was “examining the recommendations”.
Hazarika, who is also a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, said that the Union minister’s reply in Parliament indicated that eight months since the submission of the committee’s report, it has been quietly shelved.
“The chief minister had earlier said that the report was submitted to the central government in March itself. But, it is clear now that yet another round of false assurances is being handed out to the indigenous people of the state,” he alleged.
“Since the very beginning and at every stage, the senior leaders of the government have unfortunately only given false assurances to the people without any intent of fulfilling them. During the constitution of the committee, Himanta Biswa Sarma quoting the Union home minister said that the report of the committee would be implemented without changing any comma or full-stop,” he pointed out.
