Guwahati, Mar 25: Bodoland Liberation Tiger (BLT) chairman Hagrama Basumatary today assured that rights and privileges of non-Bodos who would live in the proposed Bodoland Territorial Council area would be fully protected. Addressing a huge gathering to celebrate the signing of the BTC accord here, Basumatary said the rights and privileges of all "bonafide non-Bodos living in the BTC area shall be protected equally alongwith the Bodos and no discrimination whatsoever shall be allowed to take place on ground of caste or creed". He regretted that "certain non-Bodo organisations" had been trying to "thwart the process of solution of the Bodo issue with evil design to create communal tension in the Bodo heartland". "They are trying to instigate non-Bodos living in the BTC area to oppose the creation of the council by raising fears of possible infringement of their political and land rights which was baseless," the BLT chief said. He said the proposed BTC, for which the historic accord was signed between the Centre, the state government and BLT in February last, had sufficient provisions to protect the rights of non-Bodos.
The BLT chief also urged the NDFB and Ulfa militant outfits to come forward for negotiations with the Centre so that "we unitedly can establish peace and harmony and development of society". Bureau Report