Assam's BTC chief Pramod Boro hails 'Vision Document' for integrity, progress in region

Assam's Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Chief and president of the NDA ally party United People's Party Liberal (UPPL), Pramod Boro, stated that their 'Vision Document' focuses on promoting peace, integrity, and progress in the Bodoland region. 

It outlines comprehensive development plans while also aiming to preserve and protect the language, culture, and identity of the 26 ethnic and tribal groups living in the region.

Speaking to ANI, Pramod Boro said, "By the end of this year, we are going to give something to the people of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) through this Vision Document as a New Year gift. We have collected this Vision Document from them only and they submitted many memorandums in previous times. We also formed some small groups and the groups went to those particular communities and interviewed them in different sections - women, farmers, teachers, and youths and collected their issues."

"The groups also interacted with the organisations and community leaders. The expert group has designed this Vision Document and the government has extended its support. Those issues can't be resolved at the Bodoland Territorial Council level; issues will be forwarded to the state and centre," he added. 

Boro further added that the expert committee has prepared this Vision Document for 26 communities of the Bodoland Territorial Region. 

"In this Vision Document, the expert committee has found out all the issues and problems of those communities. Some people wish to protect their language & culture, tradition, and identity; some people want to protect their lands, enjoy their land rights, and develop in education and economic aspects, and these are written in the Vision Document. Some people want recognition and notification of their community because they don't have any recognition in the constitutional framework," Boro told ANI. 

The BTC Chief said, "Maximum people want peace and integrity among the people because in Bodoland there have been conflicts between the communities, within the communities, in the past several decades, so that kind of situation should be permanently removed from the Bodoland region."

People want sustainable peace and integrity among the communities living in the Bodoland region. Those issues will come up in the Vision Document. Every community wants quality education and to develop human resources in many fields. 

Boro said, "Vision Document is a New Year gift to the people of the Bodoland region and they will receive a good Vision Document through which they can make a roadmap for the development of their own communities." 

"It is coming out from my three decades of social activities. When I was an activist moving around in the BTR region and sometimes in Assam, North East and parts of the country, at that time I realised that the people of the country who are underprivileged faced lots of problems. For many reasons, the bureaucracy and public representatives can't reach out to them to address their grievances. Sometimes they got frustrated and deprived and they had gone for agitation. In the last 70 years of independence, there have been movements of different indigenous communities in different parts of the country.

In Assam and Northeast India, we are very small ethnic groups, tribes and indigenous communities, and when their democratic rights are not heard, some people have arms in their hands and that is the story of the arms revolution in the northeastern part of the country," Boro added. 

The BTC Chief also said that, for this Vision Document, we have calculated in terms of all-round development.

Some communities want good infrastructure and this is the normal course and it is being done by the government. 

"In the Vision Document, some are short-term and some are long-term visions. Once we release the Vision Document, we will have another expert committee for the implementation of the Vision Document, where we can resolve their issues at the council level, and those issues that can't be resolved at the council level, we will forward to the higher authority, the concerned authority, with a proper approach paper," Boro told ANI. 

Boro also emphasized that some people have suggested for conservation of forests, water bodies, plantations, biodiversity, and water conservation; to resolve the matter of an elephant conflict and these kinds of issues are also mentioned in the Vision Document. The expert groups prepared the Vision Document based on the memorandums submitted by the people and different communities.

"Given the national leadership and state leadership, we can't predict what they will do or will not do," Boro told ANI. 

Boro further added, "The priority of the nation is prepared by the national leadership. Maybe in 2025-26, the priority of the nation will be something different and the state priority may be something different. These are the continuing and common issues. What I have realised and understood is that when the Constitution was framed and drafted, it was passed at that time. Those people who drafted the Constitution had those things in their minds at that time and they brought all in the clauses." 

"The Constitution doesn't have any voice and the parliamentarians and policymakers should have to check. We need to discuss every clause, schedule, and amendment and relook all the clauses to see whether this clause is implemented for this purpose or not," Boro said. 

The indigenous and tribal people should have deserved to enjoy every right of the constitution, but many people are still deprived and there should be a mechanism to relook those issues. There are many ethnic groups in Northeast India and they deserve to protect their language, culture, and everything, but sometimes those issues are ignored. In the last 30 years, Bodo signed three accords and I thanked the Bodo leadership and national leadership as well for understanding our problems.

This is the Amrit Kaal and our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has given a very beautiful vision to the people that India should be a Vikshit Bharat and I agree with the Prime Minister. I am convinced that this goal set by our Prime Minister should be realised and understood by every person in the country. I am hopeful and people are always positive. India is a big country and different issues will come. So the instruction setup, the mechanism setup, should be activated," Boro said. 

The BTC Chief Boro described the Bodo Peace Accord of 2020 as a successful agreement. The prime objective of the Accord signed in 2020 is to sustain peace in the region. The number one objective is already fulfilled and successful. Some groups were in Myanmar, and Bangladesh, someone in jail, and our brothers who took arms long back for Bodo rights, socio- political rights, and cultural and economic rights. Some of them had lost their lives, that was a very pathetic situation, a panic situation. 

Boro said, "We tried to resolve the arms conflict for all, arms movement should be resolved for all. At that time our organisation was convinced and we approached the central government the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were very fair and decisive in the matter and it was a very positive situation for us and signed the 2020 Accord."

Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma was instrumental from the state side in resolving the problem. After that, our vision was to sustain the peace bring back normalcy and ensure the security of the people who felt insecure for a couple of decades. We engaged in dialogue with the communities and started dialogue with the organisations. In the last 4 years during our BTC government regime, this is the first 4 years in the last 40 years there is not a single incident of killing and violence, not a single incident of communal conflict in Bodoland. 

There is no difference between the Bodo and Non-Bodo in Bodoland, all the tribes, communities, and ethnic groups understand each other. The integration process has again started in Bodoland. That's the reason our MP won in the last 2024 Lok Sabha election. 

"In the last 4 years, we are focusing on various issues including rural issues, ethnic communities and their aspirations. We tried to regenerate the forest, we announced altogether 800 sq km of national parks - Raimona National Park, and Sikhna Jehwlao National Park, to restore and regenerate the forest and this is our big achievement," Boro added. 

More than 4000 youths who came to the mainstream from the arms revolution, received rehabilitation packages from the government. Some martyr's families also received ex-gratia and some non-heinous cases were also withdrawn. The council which was running without any rules, or any policy, has been streamlined. 

"In 2021, we joined the council and immediately we faced a challenge with liabilities of Rs 3000 crore. The council has Rs 800-900 crore annual budget for development and for that council Rs 3000 crore liability is huge. We audited the whole government mechanism, and fund utilisation in previous times and everything is now in a position. In previous times the funds were misused and we audited all and we passed a resolution in the council assembly to give it to the right authority for investigation like CID, CBI," Boro told ANI. 

He further stated that they have focused on the agriculture sector because the maximum number of people in the Bodoland region are dependent on agriculture. 

"We are organising the agriculture sector and mechanising it; we are skilling and training the farmers for better productivity. There is no panchayati Raj in Bodoland, but we have more than 400 Village Council Development Committees (VCDCs)," Boro said.

The BTC government has also made strides in the areas of agriculture, health, education, and infrastructure. Key initiatives include the creation of national parks, rehabilitation of former militants, and improvements in rural infrastructure. The region has also seen advances in technology, with the establishment of an e-office and the digitization of land records. (With agency inputs)