Bengali-dominated Barak Valley to be exempted from Clause 6 of Assam Accord: Assam government to AASU

Guwahati: The BJP-led Assam government on Wednesday told the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) that the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley would be exempted from implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord 1985.

CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said this after a meeting here with a delegation of AASU, the state's biggest students' union, that had led the six-year-long Assam Agitation or the anti-foreigners movement between 1979 and 1985.

Following the agitation, the Assam Accord was signed in 1985 between the agitators, the centre and the Assam government It promised several steps to detect, delete and deport the foreigners to solve the state's long problem of "illegal migrants," mainly from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Several clauses of the Accord were implemented but Clause 6 has remained pending. Clause 6 had promised constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, and linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.

As the ASU and several other organisations resorted to frequent protests against the non-implementation of Clause 6, the Centre had set up a committee headed by a retired judge of Gauhati High Court, Justice Biplab Kumar Sharma to make recommendations for implementations of the clause.

The Assam Accord has also remained one of the major topics of debate during elections in Assam and BJP had also promised to implement the same in its manifestos.

CM Sarma on Wednesday told reporters that out of 67 recommendations made by Justice Sharma's committee, 40 are under the purview of the state while 12 others are under the jurisdiction of the state as well as the Centre. Only the Centre can implement the remaining 15 recommendations.

"Today we told the AASU that we want to implement the 52 clauses by April next year. However, we told the AASU team that the recommendations would not be implemented in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley. The state government also can not implement the same in areas under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution without the consent of the autonomous councils formed for various tribes," Sarma said.

Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts in South Assam are referred to as Barak Valley, where Bengalis are dominant and they also demand similar steps for the protection and preservation of the Bengali language and culture. Barak Valley has remained ethnically divided from the rest of Assam.

Sarma said an action plan for the implementation of the 52 recommendations would be prepared by the Assam Accord implementation department and would be submitted to the AASU by October 25.