Assam: Thousands Of BTC's Riot-Displaced People To Get Back Home After 25 Years

GUWAHATI: Thousands of people who have been displaced owing to ethnic and communal riots in Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in the last 25 years are likely to get back to their native places.

BTC chief Pramod Boro said Bodoland, which had witnessed riots in 1996, 2008, and 2012, saw the restoration of peace following the signing of the BTR Peace Accord in January last year. He added that they want the people, who had to suffer a lot of unpleasant experiences because of the riots, to get back to their native places (homes) and continue their lives without any fear or anxiety.

Boro said the rehabilitation programme would be carried out in the next three months and that facilities under various central schemes including the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Jal Jeevan Mission among others will be provided to the people who will be going back to their homes. The rehabilitation programme will begin with the Adivasi and Bodo people of the Kokrajhar district. It is really unfortunate that the people had to live with various miseries and pain away from their home for more than two decades, he said.

More than 970 people (including Bengali-speaking Muslims, Adivasis, and Bodos) were killed in clashes because of indiscriminate shooting by militant outfits, especially the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NFDB). Over 8 lakh people who were displaced by violence lived in relief camps while many people moved to other places in search of safety, the BTC chief said. He also said the former NFDB extremists would be rehabilitated soon as per the peace accord signed with the now-disbanded outfit.

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