STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The ABSU (All Bodo Students’ Union) is not happy with the Election Commission of India for the latter stopping short of proposing an HPC (House of People Constituency) with the name Udalguri comprising Assembly segments within the BTR in the recently published delimitation draft proposals.
Several organizations in the BTR, including the ABSU, have all along been demanding a separate HPC with the name Udalguri within the BTR. When the then Delimitation Commission of India proposed to conduct the delimitation exercise in Assam in 2007, the name of Udalguri HPC was proposed. However, in the recently published draft delimitation proposals, the ECI took six Assembly segments from the BTR and proposed the Darrang HPC by taking five other Assembly segments outside the BTR.
Speaking to The Sentinel, ABSU president Dipen Boro said, “We demanded two HPCs—Kokrajhar and Udalguri—within BTR. Since the BTR is a Sixth Schedule area, we demanded that both of these proposed HPCs be reserved for ST. The ECI retained Kokrahjar HPC for ST but stopped short of creating another HPC within the BTR with the name Udalguri. The ECI, however, took out six Assembly segments from the BTR to create the new HPC named Darrang outside the BTR. This is unconstitutional, undemocratic, and an injustice meted out to our people. If the ECI can propose an HPC named Karimganj with six Assembly segments, why cannot it do the same with Udalguri with six Assembly segments from the BTR? We, therefore, demand that the ECI propose an HPC with the name Udalguri within the BTR, comprising the six existing Assembly segments: Tamulpur, Udalguri, Majbat, Bhergaon, Tangla, and Goreswar. And this should be a reserved HPC for ST.”
Dipen Boro further said, “The spirit of the agitation led by Upendranath Brahma was ensuring political and constitutional rights, besides self-determination. The spirit of the armed revolution by the BLT and the NDFB was also the same. We have evolved from the BAC (Bodo Autonomous Council) to the BTC (Bodoland Territorial Council) and now the BTR (Bodo Territorial Region). Even now, if we don’t have political rights, what will our future be? We demand another four LACs reserved for STs in the BTR besides the existing six. Outside the BTR, the proposed Gohpur and Morigaon LACs should be reserved for ST. We will express our resentment before the ECI in the next hearing.”
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