By IANS,
New Delhi : Representatives of the pro-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland in Assam met the union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde here Wednesday and appealed to him to expedite the peace process.
“We have met the union home minister today (Wednesday) urging him to expedite the process of peace talks and urgent steps to solve the Bodoland issue,” said Gobinda Basumatary, leader of the pro-talk faction of the NDFB.
“The home minister had assured us that he would take steps to expedite the process and said that several steps had already been taken by the centre in this regard,” Basumatary said while talking to IANS.
“The home minister admitted that besides the issue of Bodoland, there are issues like the infiltration and encroachment of land by illegal Bangladeshi nationals plaguing the Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts (BTAD) and the centre is committed to solve the problems at the earliest,” Basumatary said.
The next round of talks with the central government is likely to take place by the end of this month, he said.
The NDFB (pro-talk) faction had been holding talks with the government since 2009 but there has been no ‘concrete’ development in this regard so far.
The NDFB (pro-talk) faction had also urged the centre to replace the centre’s interlocutor for peace in the northeast – P.C. Halder and suggested the names of three politicians-former Lok Sabha speaker P.A. Sangma, former Nagaland chief minister S.C. Jamir and Meghalaya Governor R.S. Moshahary as Halder’s replacement.