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The Bodo Liberation Tigers has set a deadline of July 21 for the Centre and the Assam government to evolve a solution to the long-standing impasse in the Bodoland area.
"The failure of the ongoing peace talks between the government and us would send a wrong signal to the people and give a big boost to the anti-national forces like the United Liberation Front of Asom and the National Democratic Front of Boroland," BLT publicity secretary Mainao Daimary said.
The BLT has been observing a ceasefire with the government since March 2000. The latest extension of truce is to expire on July 21.
The BLT leader said the outfit has already made its stand clear on contentious issues like amendment of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and demarcation of the boundary of the proposed Bodoland Autonomous Council, a separate administrative set up.
He said that the BLT would participate in the next round of tripartite talks only after receiving a concrete proposal from the Centre in writing. "There is no point in continuing talking on the same points over and over again unless there is something concrete to discuss," he said. Since March 2000, the outfit has held 14 rounds of talks with the state government.
Another Bodo leader and Rajya Sabha member U G Brahma, feels that the talks have been bogged down because of lack of a political directive from the Centre.
"If the prime minister [Atal Bihari Vajpayee] and the home minister [Lal Kishenchand Advani] want they can solve the problem by giving clear-cut directives to the bureaucrats. We doubt whether the officials participating in the talks have ever received clear-cut guidelines from the prime minister or the Union home minister."
Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is scheduled to meet Advani on July 1 on the Bodo issue.
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