New panel to discuss cultural safeguards for Assam on July 24

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

GUWAHATI: A high-level panel constituted by the Union home ministry to suggest ways to implement Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord will have its first meeting on July 24 in New Delhi, a member of the panel told ET. 

The ministry had to reconstitute the panel after four of the nine members named on the earlier panel, set up in January, refused to be a part of it. 

The new panel is headed by former Gauhati high court judge Justice Biplab Kumar Sarma and has 12 other members. “We received a communiqué that the first meeting will be held on July 24 at the North Block in New Delhi,” a member of the panel told ET on the condition of anonymity. 

The Assam Accord was signed between the Union government headed by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) to end the six-year-long anti-foreigner movement in Assam. 

Clause 6 of the accord provides for constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people. The panel will examine the effectiveness of actions taken since 1985 to implement the clause and to assess the appropriate level of reservation of seats in Assam’s legislative assembly and local bodies for the indigenous people.