The high-power committee for implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord may have to wait for a few more days to submit its final report as Union home minister Amit Shah’s office is yet to finalise the appointment with committee members.

The report was expected to be submitted on Saturday when the term of the committee ended.

The committee had intimated the ministry on Thursday about the completion of its report but the ministry is yet to set the date for the “official” handing over of the report.

All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi, a part of the 14-member high-power committee, told The Telegraph, “The Centre is yet to decide on the report’s submission date. The committee’s chairman, Justice (retd) Biplab Kumar Sharma, is in touch with the home ministry, which has said it would announce the date soon.”

Clause 6 promises constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the culture, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the “Assamese” people.

The 91-page report touches diverse issues like reservation of seats and jobs for indigenous’ people of the state in the Assembly and Parliament, besides trying to define the term Assamese and recommending the introduction of inner-line permits (ILP) in Assam.

A source said Shah and Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal wanted to mark the submission of the report an “important occasion” as the BJP has been trying to counter the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) movement in the state with its assurance of implementing the recommendations of the committee report. “Possibly, the ministry will take the report in a function in New Delhi within this week. The government also wants to make it a grand occasion,” the source added.

The Centre is facing flak from the people of Assam for introducing the Act that is seen as a violation of the 1985 Assam Accord.

However, AASU, which is spearheading the anti-CAA movement in the state, said Clause 6 is in no way linked to the Act. AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharjya said, “Clause 6 is meant to provide a constitutional safeguard to the indigenous people of the state for taking the burden of illegal Bangladeshis who had come to the state between 1951 and 1971 as per the Assam Accord. It can’t be the answer for taking additional foreigners whom the government wants to grant citizenship via CAA.”

While the Assam Accord had set March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshis from the state, under CAA non-Muslim illegal migrants from Bangladesh who had entered India between 1971 and December 31, 2014, will be eligible for Indian citizenship.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Kokrajhar last week, had said the Centre would implement Clause 6 as soon it received the report from the committee. “Immediately after the committee submits its final report, our government will expedite the process to fulfil the recommendations,” he had said.

The Centre had constituted the committee in July last year. Over the past seven months, it met representatives of organisations and individuals and took views of the Centre and the state government to prepare the report.