Thursday, June 8 2006 10:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Centre yesterday (June 7, 2006) held a meeting with a delegation from the Bodoland Territorial Area District in Assam and reviewed the implementation of the Bodo accord.

The accord, signed by the Centre, the Assam government and the Bodoland Liberation Tigers in 2003, provided for setting up a 46-member Bodoland Territorial Council to represent the Bodo tribals of lower Assam and a slew of development measures, including the grant of Rs 100 crore as an annual fund.

Today's meeting, chaired by the Home Ministry's Border Management Secretary B S Lalli, decided to send an team comprising officials from the Home, Food Processing, Finance and Civil Aviation ministries to the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) to assess ongoing developmental projects taken up under the accord.

"We reviewed various aspects of the Bodo accord. We also requested the government to speed up development in the BTAD," BTAD Deputy Chief-designate Mainao Daimary told sources.

The Bodo delegation requested the Centre to increase the annual grant to Rs 200 crore. It also called for the recruitment of people from Bodo areas to central police organisations.

Other demands raised by the Bodo team included the setting up of a special economic zone in Kokrajhar and a central industrial training centre in BTAD.

Apart from Daimary, four members of BTAD took part in the meeting, in which the Assam Government was represented by a delegation led by Principal Secretary P P Verma.