Guwahati/Korajhar, June 21 : The NDFB (Progressive) has submitted a map of the proposed Bodoland state which the outfit has been striving to carve out of Assam, to Centre’s interlocutor P.C. Haldar during a meeting with him here today even as BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary urged the government to take a “bold initiative” by engaging both factions of the outfit in the ongoing peace process.
A 12-member delegation of the outfit led by its information and publicity secretary S. Sanjarang in the absence of its president Diren Basumatary and secretary Govinda Basumatary, met Haldar and raised their demand for creation of a separate state of Bodoland on the basis of the map sketched by them.
The meeting, which lasted for more than three hours, was held at the headquarters of the special branch of Assam police at Kahilipara. However, NDFB’s top brass including the outfit’s president Diren Basumatary and secretary Govinda Basumatary skipped the meeting.
After the meeting, assistant information and publicity secretary B. Borosa said they had insisted on their main demand for creation of a separate Bodoland state.
“We will not settle for anything less than a separate state of Bodoland. We have also placed the map of proposed Boroland before Haldar,” he told the media. Borosa said: “It was a formal meeting with Haldar. We have put forward our stand demanding a pragmatic step for an early solution to the Bodoland problem. Haldar, on his part, said he would take up the issue with the Centre.”
The map includes the indigenous belt and blocks spreading across nine districts in the state. The outfit, which initially wanted sovereignty, has scaled down from its demand for a separate state in 2008.
The NDFB (P) has been maintaining that there cannot be permanent peace in the region until and unless a separate Bodoland state is created. Borosa said that they had also told Haldar that they would have no objection if the Ranjan Daimary faction joined them in the dialogue in the greater interest of the Bodo people.
A delegation of NDFB’s pro-talks faction will leave for Delhi on June 23 to hold discussion with the Centre on extension of ceasefire which will expire on June 30.
An official source said that the NDFB (P) delegation sought clarification from Haldar on the government’s stand on Ulfa. Sources said they questioned the “special treatment” meted out to Ulfa leaders and demanded “equal” treatment for all organisations and leaders currently bound by ceasefire agreements.
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