Assam govt still examining Clause 6 report: Governor

Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi onThursday said the state is still examining the Centre's reporton implementataion of Clause 6 of Assam Accord, which had beensubmitted to it a year ago.

In his address on the inaugural day of the lastsession of this assembly, Mukhi said the union home ministryhad constituted a high-level committee (HLC) headed by JusticeBiplab Kumar Sarma for speedy implementation of Clause 6 ofAssam Accord.

''The Committee has submitted its report and mygovernment is examining the same from the legal point of viewon the suggestions made,'' he added.

The HLC had submitted the report to Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal on February 25 last year for handing it toUnion Home Minister Amit Shah.

In December 2020, state Parliamentary Affairs MinisterChandra Mohan Patowary had told the Assembly that the Assamgovernment was yet to examine the report and was in theprocess of forming the legal committee, which was decided uponduring a meeting between Shah and Sonowal in September lastyear.

Alleging that the state government was ''sitting idle'',the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and Arunachal PradeshAdvocate General Nilay Dutta, who were part of the committee,had on August 11, 2020 released the confidential report sayingthat the public has the right to know the contents.

As per Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, constitutional,legislative and administrative safeguards, as may beappropriate shall be provided to protect, preserve and promotethe culture, social, linguistic identity and heritage of theAssamese people.

The bone of contention since the signing of theAccord on August 15, 1985 has been the definition of Assamesepeople. The committee had tried to fix the definition as thetribal, indigenous and all other Indian citizens residingwithin the territory of Assam as per the first schedule of theConstitution on or before January 1, 1951 along with theirdescendants.