New Delhi: The Bodoland People`s Front Monday
urged the Centre to provide financial and police power to the
Bodoland Territorial Council, an autonomous administrative
body within Assam.
A delegation of BPF, headed by its chief Hagrama
Mohilary, met Home Minister P Chidambaram and urged him to
allocate Central funds directly to the BTC instead of routing
thorough Assam government and also bring police under it.
"The Home Minister gave us a patient hearing and assured
us to look into our demands," Mohilary told reporters.
Mohilary, who is also chief of BTC, said work in five
Bodo dominated districts have been hampered as very limited
financial power has been given to the autonomous body.
He said controlling authority of police in the BTC area
should also be given to it. At present, the Assam government
controls law and order and finances of the BTC.
The BTC was formed after a Memorandum of Settlement
signed by the Government of India and the erstwhile Bodo
Liberation Tigers (BLT), which was spearheading a bloody
movement demanding a separate state for the Bodos in Assam, on
February 10, 2003.
Later, in the same year, Hagrama, the then chief of BLT,
was elected as the chief of BTC, which comprises twelve other
executive members.
PTI
