Bodoland Movement and 2020 Agreement

A new organisation has announced the revival of the Bodoland movement ahead of the elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).

The region is an autonomous region in lower Assam in Northeast India.
It made up of four districts on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river : Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, and Udalguri.

Region was inhabited by the Boros or Bodos and Mechs.
- The proment tribe region named in the historical period are Kachari Duar and Mech Duar.
Bodo people in the Brahmaputra Valley have survived in the midst of Khilji, Mughal, Aryan and Shan invaders and settlers.
Present regions of bodoland were ruled by Kamta or Kamatapur Kings.
Later after the treaty of yandabo after the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1826 British annexed some of the region.
After independence the region started to protest for claimed as a sovereign state under National Democratic Front of Bodoland, (NDFB) the All Bodo Students’ Union and United Bodo People’s Organisation.
Following an agreement in 1993, Bodoland became an autonomous administrative unit constituted under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India administered by the Bodoland Autonomous Council.
- The BTC has 46 members (30 seats reserved for scheduled Tribes, 5 seats for non-scheduled tribes and 5 open seats) and 6 seats of which are nominated by Governor of Assam from unrepresented communities.
Following a further peace agreement, the Bodoland Territorial Council was formed in 2003.

A new peace agreement was signed on 27 January 2020 between the Government of India and the Government of Assam on one side and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, (NDFB) the All Bodo Students’ Union and United Bodo People’s Organisation on the other.
BTR agreement says villages adjoining the BTR, where the tribal population is more than 50%, will be included in the BTR.
Bodoland Territorial Region was formed with enhanced executive and legislative powers.
The agreement makes the Bodo language with Devnagri script an associate official language of Assam.
New districts will be created and the boundary of the region will be adjusted to include Bodo inhabited areas from neighbouring districts and exclude non-Bodo inhabited villages currently under the jurisdiction of the BTC.

Bodo leaders fear that the BTR pact, which the Centre had signed with the ABSU and some now-disbanded insurgent groups, would finish off the aborigine Bodos.
They are concern particularly by the proposed exclusion of over 1,000 villages from the BTR.
Also concern over the government’s move to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six communities such as Koch-Rajbongshi, Tai-Ahom, Chutia, Matak, Moran, and Tea Tribes.
- Bodos would fight to resist the government’s move to grant ST status to the six communities.
A section of them is still waging the armed struggle.

Source : Indian Express

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Current Affairs Compilation : 17 October 2020

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