GUWAHATI, May 3 - The most important outcome of the last round of tripartite talks involving the Central and State governments and the All Assam Students Union (AASU) on implementation of the Assam Accord was revival of the tripartite committees on implementation of the clauses 6 and 7 of the Accord.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath said the tripartite committees were defunct for more than last 15 years and during the tripartite meeting, both the Central and State governments accepted the revival of the committees with three members each from the Central and State governments and the AASU. The first meeting of the tripartite committees is scheduled to be held this month.
As per clause 6 of the Accord, the Centre assured to provide constitutional protection to the indigenous people of the State, while in clause 7, an assurance was given to take steps for allround economic development of the State to improve the standard of living of the people.
Nath said that the tripartite committees on the clauses made considerable progress during the discussions held up to 1998 when GK Pillai was the Joint Secretary (NE) of the Ministry of Home Affairs. But the progress was stalled due to lack of interest of the State and Central governments.
The AASU president pointed out that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured to hold another tripartite meeting within the next two months to review the progress made in implementation of the Accord. He said that some of the promises made in the last meeting were only repetition of the promises made earlier but asserted that the student body would keep mounting pressure on the Centre for implementation of the Accord.
He also said that the Home Ministry assured to complete the process of sealing of the international border with Bangladesh by 2018. He admitted that the government missed such deadlines on a number of occasions and �we will keep a close watch on whether the promise is kept this time.�
Meanwhile, Nath also criticised State Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his reported comments denouncing the Assam Accord. He pointed out that the Union Home Minister and the State Minister were giving contradictory statements. �The Union Home Minister asserted that the Centre would not deviate from the Accord, while the State Education Minister was speaking against the Accord. As they belong to the same party, they should have discussed the issue before issuing statements,� he added.
Nath also alleged that when Sarma was the minister in charge of Accord implementation during the Congress regime, he failed to take any concrete step for the implementation of the same.
