The Government of India has in principle agreed to the idea of strengthening Sixth Schedule autonomous councils across Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura through the Constitution (125th) Amendment Bill, Chief Executive Member of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) Pramod Boro told The Hindu on Tuesday (January 28, 2025) even as Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Assam government is supporting this amendment, adding that he is “hopeful of seeing something positive” this upcoming Budget Session.
The Amendment Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha in February 2019, following which it was referred to the Departmental-Related Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which had flagged multiple issues with it in a 2020 report. The Bill, which aims to provide more financial, executive, and administrative powers to the councils by amending Article 280 of the Constitution of India, has been pending since then.
In July last year, Mr. Boro led a delegation of the chiefs of all 10 autonomous councils under the Sixth Schedule – three each in Assam, Meghalaya, and Mizoram and one in Tripura – to meet with Home Minister Amit Shah over the issues stalling the Bill. The council chiefs were assured that a committee headed by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai would examine the issues.
After several rounds of discussions with all the councils and stakeholders with this committee, Mr. Boro said, “The government had already agreed to several aspects of the changes we proposed such as increasing the number of seats in the councils, election to village councils, bringing in anti-defection law. What remains, however, is the Article 280 and bringing the councils under its ambit.”
The 125th Constitution Amendment Bill aims to enable the Finance Commission to recommend measures needed to augment the Consolidated Fund of the Sixth Schedule States, with the goal of supplementing resources of Sixth Scheduled Autonomous Councils, Village Councils, and Municipal Councils.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Boro said, “If Article 280 is granted for Councils, they will have same power as the State. There may be some rethinking on this. Otherwise, Government of India has agreed that the councils should be strengthened, and more power should be given to the councils – in principle.”
Mr. Boro hinted that there may be another hiccup as well with regards to the provisions of bringing in Village Council elections, which also seeks to introduce reservations for women. “Some hill councils have raised an issue that this may interfere with their customary practices. But we have held discussion explaining how important VC elections are to get the Article 280 funds so these are also getting resolved.”
Mr. Boro has said publicly that the Amendment Bill was imperative for the BTR to get the resources it needs to develop the region even as Mr. Sarma said on Tuesday (January 28, 2025) that the region was seeing very fast development because it had multiple sources of income, insisting instead that “money is not an issue”.
According to sources aware of the councils’ deliberations with the Ministry of Home Affairs in the last six months, the Union government has assured the councils that “modalities are being worked out to address most of the issues raised”. “This update was given to the councils at the last meeting about two months ago,” one source said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Mr. Boro’s United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) are in alliance with the BTR although they had contested the elections in 2020 by themselves. And with the next elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council Legislative Assembly due later this year, the fate of their alliance is not yet clear.
Although Mr. Boro said that his party and the BJP are happy with each other’s approach to the development of the Bodoland region and maintaining the peace here, Mr. Sarma said that the future of the alliance will be determined in due course.
“We may contest alone like last time and form government together. But this will be decided by the party presidents as a matter of strategy when the time comes. Despite having a strong presence in the region, we have neither claimed the CEM post nor the Deputy Chief post. This is the BJP approach to tribal areas,” he said.
