New Delhi: Peeved over the slow progress of implementation of several clauses of the historic Assam accord, a government panel has set a timeframe of two years to implement its recommendations.
The panel named as the "Clause 6 committee" was setup by the Union Home Ministry last year to suggest recommendations to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord which was signed in 1985.
Clause 6 of the Assam Accord provides constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguard to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people. The 14 member committee headed by Justice (retd) Biplab Kumar Sarma submitted its recommendations to the Assam government in February.
However, even though five months have passed, the Union Home Ministry is yet to take a call on the recommendations.
The committee suggested that the report should be implemented at the earliest and in a time bound manner within two years.
Assam's influential student body, All Assam Students Union (AASU) recently made the committee report public. "The recommendations of the Clause 6 committee is a public document now. We have seen what had happened to the historic Assam Accord signed more than three decades back. There was no time frame for the implementation of the Accord. Several of the important clauses of the Accord are yet to be implemented...there could be several complex issues in the recommendations which might require time, so we have set a timeline of two years and asked the government to implement the several recommendations of the committee within this particular time," said (AASU) general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi.
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The Assam Accord was signed between the Government of India, Assam Government, and AASU to end the vigorous anti-foreigner agitation launched by the influential student organisation (AASU) in late 70s. The agitation aimed to push back all illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who entered into Assam after 1971.
Significantly, AASU was also a representative body in the Clause 6 committee. The committee also suggested to setup an appropriate body to monitor the execution of the recommendations and reconcile any constitutional and legal challenges that may arise in their implementations.
"We have demanded that the committee should preferably be headed by a retired Judge of the Supreme Court or High Court, with representatives from Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Assam and All Assam Students Union," said Gogoi.
He said that the Assam Accord was signed in 1985, and even after more than three decades, it has not been implemented. "We have seen that all the governments have betrayed us. So we have set a timeframe of two years as far as Clause 6 is concerned," said Gogoi.
Gogoi said that implementation of the Assam Accord was a national commitment "which witnessed the sacrifice of more than 855 people."
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"It was the duty of the Central Government to implement the Accord within the stipulated time. The government should implement all clauses of the Assam Accord... The Home Minister assured us that all Clauses of the Assam Accord will be implemented," said Gogoi.
He, however, said that there was a lack of will on the part of the government to implement the Accord. "All governments failed to implement the Accord. Last few decades all the political parties especially Congress, BJP and even the Third Front betrayed the people of Assam. They were not trying to implement the Assam Accord," said Gogoi.
