Assam govt accepts 1951 as cut-off year for implementation of Justice Biplab Sharma committee recommendations

Guwahati (Assam) [India], September 27 (ANI): The Assam government has accepted 1951 as the cut-off year for implementation of the recommendations of the Justice (Retd) Biplab Sharma committee for Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.

A crucial meeting between the Assam government and the leadership of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) was held on Wednesday at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Guwahati for implementation of the recommendations of the Justice (Retd) Biplab Sharma committee for Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, “The State Government has already implemented some of the recommendations of the Justice (Retd) Biplab Sarma Committee such as having 1951 as the cutoff year for several of schemes. For instance, this has been incorporated in Mission Basundhara.”

“As per the recommendations of the Justice (Retd) Biplab Sharma Committee, the state government has accepted 1951 as a cut-off year and it is already in Mission Basundhara and we are doing that for last 3 years itself. We have formally discussed, but on spirit we are already implementing the recommendation. So, we have accepted the cut-off year of 1951 in the context of specific recommendation. It is not that when you go to apply for a licence you have to show 1951, when you have to go to a restaurant you have to show 1951, it is not that, only in regard to the specific recommendation of 1951. But we have not accepted 1951 as a general cut-off date for day to day life of Assam, which we can’t do,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

He further said that, in last assembly, the state government has passed three land bills where the government has made 1951 as a cut-off year.

“We have not mentioned 1951, but we said three generations, three generations mean one generation is 25 years, so it is 1951. But going to voting, apply for job nobody will ask 1951. There is nothing to be created a panic that you have accepted 1951. Because Justice (Retd) Biplab Sharma Committee report has not said that you adopt 1951 as a general day to day life, he has only said that, so far as these recommendations are concerned and these recommendations are very few, you take 1951 as a cut-off year,” Dr Sarma said.

The Assam Chief Minister also said that – “Assam has decided to implement the recommendations of the Justice (Retd) Biplab Sharma Committee with regards to Clause 6 of the Assam Accord. Of the recommendations to be adopted – 1. 40 are exclusively in the domain of the State Government. For the implementation of these we have chalked out a roadmap; 2. 12 will require the concurrence of the Government India; 3. 15 are exclusively in the domain of the Government of India. We will take up these matters with the Centre at the right forum.”

The Justice (Retd) Biplab Sharma committee report stated that – “Considering the claims, objections and suggestions of different stakeholders, the Committee formed the opinion that the term ‘Assamese People’ as it appears in the Accord needs no explanation in the sense it is understood. Assamese People are those (i) who are generally referred to as Assamese; (ii) those who are indigenous tribal/ ethnic groups of Assam and (iii) those who are other indigenous people of Assam having their roots to pre-1951 period. While the first two groups have no problem of identification and need no identification parameters, but the third group will have to be identified in reference to their roots to pre-1951 origin. At this stage, it will be pertinent to refer to the definition of the term ‘Indigenous person of Assam’ which finds mention in the census report pertaining to Assam, Manipur and Tripura presented by the then Indian Civil Service Officer, R. B. Vaghaiwalla, Director of Census of the Census Report, 1951, which reads as – ‘Indigenous person of Assam means a person belonging to the State of Assam and speaking the Assamese Language or any tribal dialect of Assam or in the case of Cachar the language of the region’.”

“It is on the basis of this aforesaid census report, the National Register of Citizens, 1951 was prepared. This found mention in the address of the then Chief Minister of Assam, Bishnuram Medhi, made to the enumerators (Gananakari) in which he categorically stated that the National Register of Census would be prepared on the basis of the said census report,” said in the Committee report.

On July 15, 2019, the Union Home Ministry had constituted the High Level Committee under Chairmanship of Justice (Retd) Biplab Sharma in respect of Clause 6 of Assam Accord and on February 20, 2020, the committee had submitted its report to the then Assam Chief on implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.

“As per the recommendations of Justice (Retd) Biplab Sharma Committee, protection of land, culture and language rights are with the State Govt and we have already undertaken efforts in this direction over and beyond the recommendations,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.