Karbi Agreement is another milestone in PM’s vision of insurgency free prosperous North East: Amit Shah
New Delhi: A Karbi Anglong Agreement to end the decades old crisis ensuring Assam’s territorial integrity was signed in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, here today. With this agreement, over 1000 armed cadres have abjured violence and joined the mainstream of society. A Special Development Package of Rs. 1000 crores over five years will be given by the Union Government and Assam Government to undertake specific projects for the development of Karbi areas.
Describing the agreement as ‘historic’, Shah said it is the present government’s policy that those who give up arms are brought into mainstream. “Due to this policy only, we are getting rid of old problems one by one that the (Narendra) Modi Government had inherited,” he claimed.
Following are the salient features of today’s agreement:
- This Memorandum of Settlement will ensure greater devolution of autonomy to the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, protection of identity, language, culture, etc. of Karbi people and focussed development of the Council area, without affecting the territorial and administrative integrity of Assam.
- The Karbi armed groups have agreed to abjure violence and join the peaceful democratic process as established by law of the land. The Agreement also provides for rehabilitation of cadres of the armed groups.
- The Government of Assam shall set up a Karbi Welfare Council for focussed development of Karbi people living outside Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) area.
- The Consolidated Fund of the State will be augmented to supplement the resources of KAAC.
- Overall, the present settlement proposes to give more legislative, executive, administrative and financial powers to KAAC.
Present on the occasion were Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Minister of AYUSH, Nityanad Rai, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Tuliram Ronghang, Chief Executive Member of KAAC, representatives of Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front/ KLNLF, People’s Democratic Council of Karbi Longri/ PDCK, United People’s Liberation Army/ UPLA, Karbi People’s Liberation Tigers/KPLT factions along with senior officers from Union Ministry of Home Affairs and Government of Assam.
It may be mentioned that the history of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council draws back from 1940, when a handful of Karbi Youth formed an organization with name and style of Karbi Adurbar and initiated for preserving the political and traditional identity of the tribe.
Karbi Anglong came into being as a full fledged separate district in the map of Assam with its Head quarter at Diphuon October 14, 1976. The district enjoys autonomy under the provision of Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It is the Largest district of Assam with a total geographical area of 10, 434 Sq. Kilometer.
With, vigorously changed political development in early 1995, the Karbi Anglong District Council was renamed as the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) by an Act of Parliament by incorporating the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution (Amendment) Act, 1995 to the Constitution of India granting greater autonomy to the Council. Further, a tripartite Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) was signed between the Central Government, Government of Assam and United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) in the presence of the then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in accordance with which the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council was to be re-christened as Karbi Anglong Autonomous Territorial Council.
On the 15th of August 2015, the district was further bifurcated into two districts, namely Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong Districts. As such the purview of the present Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) has jurisdiction over two full fledged districts.
– global bihari bureau
