GUWAHATI: The Assam government on Monday said it is yet to examine the report on clause 6 of the Assam Accord prepared by the Centre's high-level committee even though it was submitted 10 months ago.
In a written reply to a query by Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said the government had decided to form a legal committee to look into the report.
The decision to form the legal committee was taken after the meeting between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in September this year, he added.
"The process to form the legal committee is going on. It got delayed due to COVID related atmosphere," said Patowary on behalf of Sonowal, who also holds Implementation of Assam Accord portfolio.
As per clause 6 of the agreement, constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the culture, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.
The bone of contention since the signing of the pact has been the definition of Assamese people, which the committee tried to address.
On February 25, the committee on the implementation of clause 6, headed by Justice (retd) B K Sharma, had submitted the report to the chief minister for handing it over to the union home minister.
With the government "sitting idle" over the report, the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and Arunachal Pradesh Advocate General Nilay Dutta, who were part of the committee, had on August 11 released the confidential report, saying that the public has the right to know the contents.
To a separate query, Patowary said 29,959 foreigners have been deported as per provisions of the Assam Accord, which was signed in 1985.
"As per the Assam Accord, 1,34,810 persons have been identified as foreigners till July 31, 2020," he added.
The minister further said that 98.35 per cent work for barbed fencing of the Assam-Bangladesh border is complete and the remaining portion is left due to objections by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).