Title - Stir by non-Bodo bodies hits rail, road services

PATHSHALA – Train and road services remained suspended for about eight hours from 6 am today as a result of the rail-cum-road blockade programme staged by the Aboro Surakshya Samiti, a non-Bodo organisation opposed to the creation of a separate Bodoland state, at the railway level-crossing on the NH-31 near the office of the Bajali SDO (Civil) to register their protest against further dismemberment of the State.It was a sea of humanity at the railway level crossing on the NH-31 today with the activists and supporters of the Aboro Surakshya Samiti, the Sanmilita Janagosthiya Sangram Samiti (SJSS), the All Bodoland Minorities Students’ Union (ABMSU), the Sachetan Gana Mancha and several other non-Bodo organisations coming from far flung areas of the BTAD areas and Bajali areas taking part in the blockade programme. A large number of aged people and women also took part in the programme with much enthusiasm.The protesters demanded exclusion of all non-Bodo majority villages from the Bodoland Territorial Administrative Districts (BTAD) areas, holding of tripartite talks involving the non-Bodo organisations on the issue of a separate Bodoland state and its connected issues, before arriving at a conclusion on these issues, non-application of the Sixth Schedule in the plains of Assam, seizure of illegal arms in the BTAD areas and an end to abductions, extortions and killings in the BTAD areas.

Staff Reporter adds: Aboro Surakshya Samiti advisor Hareswar Barman today blamed the Government for its policies on the tribal autonomy issue. The wrong policy of the Government in this respect is turning Assam into a smouldering cauldron.

To save Assam from the fratricidal clashes resulting from this situation, the Government should immediately hold a series of round-table conferences involving all the ethnic groups and non-tribal organisations so that consensus solutions could be arrived at on these issues.