The Assam government on Thursday announced its decision to extend the territory of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) by including 60 villages from Sonitpur district.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, attending the 74th Republic Day celebrations here as the chief guest, announced that villages in Dhekiajuli, Behali, Sootea, Gohpur and Biswanath with 80 per cent or more Bodo population will be included in the BTR “as part of its commitment to implement” the tripartite Bodo Accord signed in January 2020 for permanent peace in the Bodo belt.

The villages — 43 revenue villages and 17 forest villages — to be included in the BTR fall under Sonitpur district in north Assam.

The BTR currently comprises four districts — Baksa, Chirang, Kokrajhar and Udalguri. Sarma said the government had committed to extending the boundary of the BTR council to Gohpur, especially, including villages with a 100 per cent Bodo majority.

“The Bodo Accord is a milestone. We are declaring our decision to include the Bodo majority villages today,” he said.

Leaders of the four National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) factions, the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU), then MHA joint secretary Satyendra Garg and then Assam chief secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna had signed the third Bodo Accord in presence of Union home minister Amit Shah, then chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and then cabinet minister Sarma.

Assam has a BJP-led state government while the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) under the BTR is headed by its ally United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL).

However, a non-Bodo resident of Biswanath said there has been no discussion with local stakeholders, indicating the government will have to do some convincing before executing its decision because boundary demarcation or rearrangement has remained a sensitive issue.

Wishing anonymity, he said earlier the government had merged Biswanath district with Sonitpur and now they have decided to include Bodo majority villages in BTR.

Sarma used the opportunity to once again urge the militant Ulfa (I) to return to the mainstream while revealing that the state was going to launch a “Health Services Utsav” aimed at taking healthcare delivery to the last mile.

In line with the Gunotsav (an event to evaluate school performance), government officials shall visit and evaluate qualitative parameters of government hospitals under the policy, Sarma said, asserting that the government was “duty-bound to crack down on practices such as child marriages” which he had announced a few days ago.