KOKRAJHAR, March 4 � Former Union Home Secretary GK Pillai, who is heading the expert committee on the Bodoland statehood issue, today postponed his visit to the State due to certain reasons.
In a public meeting organised at Deborgaon here today to accord a warm welcome to Pillai, BTC chief and BPF supremo Hagrama Mohilary, who is also the president of the Bodo National Conference (BNC), said that he will steadfastly support the creation of the Bodoland State.
Addressing a mammoth gathering, Mohilary said the expert committee will examine the viability of the creation of a separate State. He said different communities living within the Bodoland area are gripped with fear-psychosis over the possibility of their rights being violated as a result of the creation of a separate State, but the expert committee will take the opinions of all communities into consideration.
Mohilary said that no government and intellectual will ever support further division of Assam and the Andhra Pradesh government had also opposed the creation of Telangana, but as the Government of India still went ahead and created the new State, Bodos also desire that the same formula be applied to create a separate Bodoland. �We cannot expect the creation of Bodoland to happen under a government led by Congress, AGP or BJP, and therefore, the Bodos want direct intervention of the Union Government in this issue,� he said, adding that the non-Bodos, mainly from outside the BTC area, had also opposed the creation of BTC and called bandhs in the region. Bandhs cannot stop the Bodoland demand as it is the wish of the people of the area, he said.
Mohilary further said that a separate State is not created on the basis of population. The population of a section of people is increasing abnormally in the area but it is clear that it is the Bodos who are the aboriginal people of the State and they are being outnumbered due to the rampant increase in the number of people from outside.
Rajya Sabha MP Biswajit Daimary, Lok Sabha MP SK Bwiswimuthary, Cabinet Minister Chandan Brahma, MLA PR Brahma, besides all BTC EMs and MCLAs, attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, the people of a minority community pelted stones at the vehicles coming to take part in the Kokrajhar rally at Angthihara and Sapkhata in Gossaigaon subdivision, in which three persons were injured. The Sanmilita Janagosthiya Aikya Mancha and several other organisations called a 12-hour BTAD bandh today in protest against the constitution of the expert committeem, which evoked total response in Kokrajhar.
