Guwahati, Sep 25: The Assam government will prepare an action plan within a month to implement 52 of the 67 recommendations of the Justice (Retd) Biplab Kumar Sarma Committee on the implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
Making the announcement after chairing a key meeting with the representatives of the All-Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Wednesday, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the recommendations of the committee have been divided into three parts – 40 are under the ambit of state government; 12 under the ambit of both the state and the central government while 15 recommendations are exclusively under the ambit of the central government.
“We will prepare an action plan regarding implementation of 52 recommendations that are under the ambit of the state government by October 25, 2024 and submit the same to AASU during the second meeting on that day,” Sarma said, adding that the recommendations under the ambit of the state government include those regarding right to land, language and culture while the recommendations regarding political and employment rights will be under the ambit of the central government.
The chief minister said that if the students’ union comes to a consensus on the 52 recommendations, then the state government could move ahead and plan to implement the same by April 2025.
“We have however made it clear to the students’ union that the 52 recommendations will not be implemented in Barak Valley. Regarding the Sixth Schedule areas, they can only be implemented if the authorities there give explicit consent, else there will not be any scope for implementation of the recommendations there also,” Sarma clarified.
Regarding the 15 recommendations exclusively under the ambit of the central government, the chief minister said that the state government would make a request to the Centre to implement the same.
“Besides, we will request the central government for a sitting with the AASU leadership to discuss ways to implement the 15 recommendations of the committee,” he said.
The discussion primarily revolved around the state’s approach to safeguarding the cultural, social, and linguistic identity of the Assamese people as stipulated by Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
“Today’s meeting was to demystify and make the committee’s report public. More importantly, the responsibility of implementation of the clauses of the report could be ascertained,” the chief minister said, adding that the report would be uploaded on the website of the Assam Accord implementation department by Thursday.