Government Forms Committee to Draw Framework for Implementation of Assam Accord

GG News Bureau

Guwahati, 2nd Oct. The Assam government has constituted an eight-member committee to prepare a roadmap for the implementation of all the clauses of the 36-year-old Assam Accord. Officials gave this information on Saturday. They informed that the state government has decided to prepare a roadmap for the implementation of the Assam Accord, specifically the Section-VI report prepared by a central committee on cultural, social and linguistic identity.

Section 6 of the Assam Accord states that constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards shall be taken to protect and preserve the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people. Assam Accord Implementation Department commissioner and secretary GD Tripathi issued a notification announcing the constitution of the sub-committee, which will submit its report within the next three months.

The notification said, “The Governor of Assam has constituted a sub-committee to examine and formulate a framework for the implementation of all the clauses of the Assam Accord with special emphasis on Section-6 (Report of the High Level Committee).

The committee will also lay emphasis on the implementation of sections 7, 9 and 10 along with updating the National Register of Citizens, issues of floods and erosion, rehabilitation of the families of martyrs and victims of the Assam agitation. In addition, the sub-committee will consider various problems faced by the state and prospects of all-round economic development while preparing the report for the implementation of the historic agreement.

The notification said that the sub-committee, headed by Assam Accord Implementation Minister Atul Bora, consists of three ministers and five members of the All Assam Students Union (AASU). Other ministers on the committee are Parliamentary Affairs Minister Piyush Hazarika and Finance Minister Ajanta Niyog, while AASU President Dipanka Kumar Nath, General Secretary Shankar Jyoti Barua, Chief Advisor Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya, Advisor Prakash Chandra Das and Udip Jyoti Gogoi are included.

The Assam government had announced on September 7 after a meeting between the student body and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma that it would form a new committee with members of AASU. The Assam Accord was signed in 1985. Before that, there was a six-year agitation between 1979 and 1985 to trace illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam.