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 Assam 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.
AASu chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya said, “Union home minister Amit Shah gave a commitment in the Parliament that the government will respond promptly, as and when the Clause 6 committee submits its report. We, the committee members of the committee, were silent for the last five months with a hope that the Centre will inform us about the status of its implementation. However, neither there was any progress on the part of the government, nor the report was made public. People of Assam should know the recommendations given by the committee. It's their right.”
Advocate Dutta added, "There has not been any breach of confidentiality after putting the report in the public domain. The report itself was prepared for the people of Assam and they have every right to know the recommendations. Besides, all the recommendations given by us may not be apt and thus, they can further recommend modifications.”
The constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards of Assamese people are enshrined in Clause 6 of the Accord but their implementation was not possible due to lack of a proper definition of "Assamese people".
The committee has suggested Centre to consider only those people as Assamese, who are indegenous tribal and other indegenous communities as well as all other citizens of India residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951 and their descendants. The report adds that this definition of Assamese people is for the specific purpose of implementation of the Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
Aasu said that the core proposals given by the committee included full implementation of the 1985 accord in a time bound manner, as the Assam Accord is yet to be fully and effectively implemented after 35 years of signing on August 15, 1985. "Prompt and adequate measures to be adopted to completely seal the Indo-Bangladesh border in the line of Indo-Pakistan border. Till deportation of post 1971 stream of declared foreigners is completed, they should be resettled in areas outside the state of Assam, as an interim measure," read a statement issued by the students' body, quoting the report.
The committee has also suggested that at least 80 percent of parliamentary seats and equal percentage assembly constituencies of Assam be reserved for the "Assamesepeople." AASU, however wants the reservation to be 100 % from local body to parliament constituencies
For employment too, the committee has recommended that 80 percent of group C and D level posts under Central, Semi-central government, Central PSUs and private sector including establishments under PPP mode arising in Assam be reserved for the "Assamese people". However, Aasu's stand for the same has been 100 percent reservation for group C and D, and 90 percent for group A and B level posts under the said categories in Assam.
On the language question, it recommended that Assamese language shall continue to be official language of Assam as per the provisions of Assam Official Language Act, 1960 throughout the state with provisions for use of local languages in Barak valley, hill districts and Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD).