Guwahati, Feb 17 (IANS): In a first, a session of the Assam Assembly was conducted outside the state capital Dispur on Monday with the first sitting of the budget session being held at Kokrajhar, the headquarters of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) autonomous council.
The session began at noon with a speech by Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya at the BTR council assembly building. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the council of ministers, and other MLAs were present.
In his speech, Governor Acharya stated, “Today's Assembly session in Kokrajhar is historic and unparalleled. A crucial step toward democracy and accountability is that the legislature and its budget session are being conducted outside the state capital for the first time. The state assembly is being moved to other regions of the state and closer to the general public.”
For several decades, the BTR region of Assam has been a hotspot of militancy, with multiple Bodo terror groups carrying out violent acts that have killed numerous people and security personnel in response to their demands for their own state.
Four factions of the United Bodo Peoples' Organisation (UBPO), All Bodo Students Union, and National Democratic Front of Bodoland -- which had been fighting for a separate Bodoland state for decades --renounced their demand and signed the Bodo peace accord in New Delhi in January 2020, in front of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Under the 2020 peace accord, which was the third one after the previous peace agreements signed in 1993 and 2003, all four NDFB factions shunned violence, surrendered their weapons and dissolved their armed organisations, following which the Centre and the state government initiated a process to rehabilitate their cadres.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker of the Assam Assembly, Numal Momin, highlighted the significance of holding the Budget session in Kokrajhar.
He said, “After BJP came to power at the Centre and in the state, the peace prevails in BTR (Bodoland Territorial Region), which was a disturbed area earlier. Having the Governor’s speech and budget session of the Assembly here has spread a very good message among the people. This takes forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’.”