Assam: Bodoland accord should be revisited, says Akhil Gogoi

GUWAHATI: The Bodoland Accord needed to be revisited to provide land rights to indigenous people in lower Assam, peasant leader Akhil Gogoi today said.

"The accord signed in 2003 did not ensure land rights to the indigenous people and thus should be revisited to provide them their rightful demands," Gogoi, secretary general of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS), told reporters here.

"The only solution will be to grant land rights to the locals. The influx from Bangladesh has created the recent unrest in the Bodo areas and this has to be stopped," he said.

The National Registrar of Citizens should also be updated within two years and inner line permit enforced to ensure there is no influx, Gogoi said.

"We demand a constitutional solution to the influx problem as only this will ensure there is no more communal flare up, continuing unabated since July 19," he said.

Appealing to the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) administration, Assam and central government to ensure communal harmony in the strife-torn area, Gogoi said the ongoing CBI probe should be "impartial".

Illegal arms in the hands of miscreants be seized to stem violence, he said.

A torch rally will be organised by KMSS on September 1 to create awareness among the people on the issue, Gogoi added.