OUR CORRESPONDENT
KOKRAJHAR: The Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha (BJSM) on Monday said that the bifurcation of Department of WPT&BC into two parts-BTC and Assam State -was meaningless and had no credible reason, rather it was complicating the procedure of reporting to the ministry by the secretary of the department concerned.
The president of the BJSM, Janaklal Basumatary said that the ultimate distribution of portfolios for the recently constituted Council of Ministers of Assam showed total neglect of BTC and the other two sixth schedule areas- Karbi Anglong, Dima Hasao. He said that BTC got only one minister with minor portfolio while Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao got none. The only one minister from BTC was also given a minor portfolio such as Handloom, Soil Conservation and WPT & BC (BTC), he said, adding that the WPT & BC department had been bifurcated into two ministries, one for whole Assam other than BTC held by Dr. Ranoj Pegu and other only for BTC held by UG Brahma. "To whom will the departmental Secretary report ? What is the reason to bifurcate the small department into two? Will the budget allocation also be bifurcated for this small department for each ministry? Can the same one department handle the budget allocation of two independent ministries?" he said.
Basumatary said that as a whole the tribal welfare administration was given least importance and the tribal welfare department was made weaker by dividing the department into BTC and non-BTC. "This arrangement weakens the tribal welfare department. To protect the constitutional safeguard for tribal people, a strong tribal welfare department is required, not such a weak and confusing department having two separate independent ministries," he said, adding that the tribal leaders must set right this anomaly of creation of two ministries for one department. He further said it was clear indication of neglect against the tribal welfare department and humiliation of the backward class people.