Peace deal with ULFA and center likely to sign before polls 2024

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Peace deal with ULFA and center likely to sign before polls 2024

Guwahati: The United Liberation Front of Assam (a pro-negotiation faction) on Wednesday finalized a draft agreement to be signed with the central government to end the organization’s four-decade-long armed struggle in Assam.
The pro-negotiation faction of the organization abandoned the path of violence and came to the negotiating table in 2010, after which the state government released all the jail leaders, including chairman Arabindaa Rajkhowa and vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi.
“We hope to sign a peace accord with the Center before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” ULFA (pro-talk) general secretary Anup Chetia addressed the organization’s general council at Wildgrass in Assam’s Kaziranga on Wednesday told reporters after the meeting.
“We have proposed reservation of 94 Assembly and 8 Lok Sabha seats for indigenous communities of the state permanently in the proposed deal,” Chetia said.
“We have also included another provision in the deal to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) with 1950 as the cut-off year,” he said.
“After discussions with the central government in 2011, peace negotiator AK Mishra gave us the draft agreement before Rongali Bihu to sign an agreement.
But it does not ensure the protection of political and constitutional rights of our indigenous people. Today’s meeting of the General Council discussed the draft agreement and finalized it after adding some clauses and deleting some,” Chetia also said.
Meanwhile, a statement from the organization said that the General Council approved the draft agreement which was prepared by the Working Council and the Central Executive Council with additions and deletions of certain clauses.
“The meeting also authorized the Central Executive Council to sign an agreement with the Center and the state government,” the statement said.

The meeting empowered the Working Council and the newly established centers to prepare an error-free list of martyrs, missing and wounded and submit it to the General Secretary of the Organization.
On 18 October, ULFA (pro-talk faction) leaders held a meeting in Guwahati with some parents/guardians and announced the list of 31 missing ULFA leaders/cadres in Operation All Clear conducted in 2003.

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