Kokrajhar, Jan. 8: Dularai Bodo Samaj and Bodo Writers Academy have welcomed the Assam chief minister's announcement to create an autonomous council for the Bodo Kachari people living outside the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD).

In a joint press meet at Kokrajhar Press Club here today, Bodo Samaj president Rajen Boro and Bodo Writers Academy vice-president Rajen Basumatary welcomed chief minister Tarun Gogoi's announcement.

They said the council was a step forward for the Bodo Kacharis living outside the BTAD who are deprived of their rights and urged the state government to step up the process to form the interim council before the notification for the Assembly election.

They also asked the government to take the national organisations of the Bodos into confidence when formulating the modalities of the Bodo Kachari Autonomous Council.

The All-Assam Bodo People's Confederation and the World Bodo National Confederation also welcomed the move.

In a statement, former MP Sansuma Khunggur Bwiswmuthiary, who is the president of the Bodo People's Confederation and the World Bodo National Confederation, said, "We welcome in principle the political wisdom behind the Assam chief minister's declaration of the formation of an autonomous council. The Bodo people living outside the BTAD have been marginalised and deprived of their rights."

He said the autonomous council should be renamed the All-Assam Bodo People's Autonomous Council. It should be created under the provisions of the Constitution either in line with the provisions of Article 244 or Article 371(1) (2) (a), (b) and (c).

"The administrative council should be an elected body based on adult franchise. A geo-political district with a Bodo population should have at least one or two members in the council even by way of nomination and each geo-political district with a Bodo population should have a district office of the autonomous council to provide easy access to the public to the council administration," he said.