Dispur cautious on DHD accord

UMANAND JAISWAL

Guwahati, Apr 26 : Dispur has indicated that the government will not rush into signing any memorandum of settlement with the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel), having grown wiser from its experience with the Karbi outfit, the United People’s Democratic Solidarity.

Sources dealing with rebel groups in ceasefire told The Telegraph here that the MoS with the UPDS has made the governments both at the Centre and at Dispur tread cautiously before sewing up any such pact with the DHD (J), which is in truce since 2009.

The rationale is that it will be difficult to accommodate the justified demands of the DHD (Nunisa), which is in a ceasefire since 2003, if it went ahead with its agreement only with the Jewel group.

The government now is trying to sign the MoS with both the DHD factions at the “same time, if not together” because after signing the MoS with the UPDS last year, it has become difficult for the Karbi Longri National Liberation Front to sign an MoS, as the government has given everything that was to be given to the UPDS.

The KLNLF can’t be offered major concessions, as both have been espousing the cause of Karbis and Karbi Anglong.

“We don’t want a repeat of UPDS vis-à-vis DHD factions because these groups are also fighting for the same cause, albeit separately — for the development of Dimasas and Dima Hasao district. Our effort now is to work on both groups to sign the MoS at the same time so they can claim whatever is there in the MoS as their own,” the source said.

It is understood that the draft MoS with the DHD (J) is almost ready but talks with the Nunisa faction is stuck over boundary issues, something which will not be tinkered with.

“There will be no tinkering with either state boundaries or with district boundaries. It is sacrosanct,” the source said.

Both the government and the DHD (J), sources said, have more or less finalised a draft pact which envisages bifurcation of the Dima Hasao district into three, increasing the council seat to at least 40 and a special economic package of Rs 125 crore for development of the Dima Hasao Council areas.

All packages are for districts, not for any particular group.