Assam tribal council prepares community-based roadmap for development

Assam's Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) unveils a community-based vision document for 26 ethnic groups, aiming for peace and development.

GUWAHATI

The Odias are too few to be a political force in Assam’s Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR). Ditto with the Hajongs, Kurukhs, Madahi Kacharis or Scheduled Caste sub-groups such as the Hiras and Patnis.

These ethnic groups were among 26 – the numerically larger Adivasis, Gurkhas, Koch-Rajbongshis and Muslims included – that shared space in a community-based vision document released by Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya on Monday (December 30, 2024).

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Pramod Boro, the chief executive member of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), said the first-of-its-kind vision document was a New Year gift for these communities to acknowledge their role in helping maintain peace across BTR during his tenure since 2020. The areas under BTR have had a history of ethnic and communal conflicts.

The BTC administers the 8,970 sqkm BTR comprising five districts inhabited by 31.55 lakh people, including the Bodos, the single-largest Scheduled Tribe in Assam.

“This vision document is one of my dream projects and a gift from the BTC for the 26 communities, most of whom did not get the kind of attention they deserved from the government as citizens of the country with equal rights,” Mr. Boro told journalists in Guwahati, about 220 km east of BTC headquarters Kokrajhar.