MHA's Assam panel makes 'confidential' report public

GUWAHATI: A high-level committee constituted by the MHA for finding ways to protect and preserve the identity of Assamese people under the AssamAssamAssam Accord of 1985 has suggested that only those people who were residing in Assam on or before January 1, 1951 and their descendants will be eligible for the constitutional safeguards.

The contents of the report by the 14-member committee was submitted to centre and state government last February and since then has been under wraps and no visible action has been initiated for its implementation despite assurances from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah.

On Tuesday four members of the committee—the three top leaders of All Assam Students' Union (Aasu) and senior advocate of Gauhati High Court, Nilay Dutta, broke the 'confidentiality' of the report and made the contents public at a news conference here. They said the people of Assam need to know the suggestions penned in the report for their constitutional safeguards, which the government has kept under wraps for five months now.