Ninetieth Constitutional Amendment Act 2003 explained – Indian polity – Free PDF Download

90^th  Amendment 2003

STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS

• Amendment of article 332. – In article 332 of the Constitution, in clause (6), the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:-
• “Provided that for elections to the Legislative Assembly of the State of Assam, the representation of the Scheduled Tribes and non-Scheduled Tribes in the constituencies included in the Bodoland Territorial Areas District, so notified, and existing prior to the constitution of the Bodoland Territorial
  Areas District, shall be maintained.”.
• Article 332 of the Constitution of India provides for reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assemblies of the States. Clause (6) of article 332.
• stipulates that no person who is not a member of a Scheduled Tribe of any autonomous district of the State of Assam shall be eligible for election to the Legislative Assembly of the State from any constituency of that district.
• In pursuance of the Memorandum of Settlement signed on the 10th day of February, 2003 between the Government of India,
• Government of Assam and Bodo Liberation Tigers, and to protect the rights of the non-tribals, the existing representation of the Scheduled Tribes and non-Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Assam from the Bodoland Territorial Council Areas District is proposed to be kept intact.
• It is, therefore, proposed to insert a proviso in clause (6) of article 332 of the Constitution.

• BTAD is spread over four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri.

History of Bodoland

• Bodos are the single largest communityamong the notified Scheduled Tribes in Assam.
• Bodos are a part of Bodo-Kachariand constitute about 5-6% of Assam’s population.
• Thefirst organised demand for a Bodo state came in 1967-68.
• The Assam Accord of 1985,gave rise to Bodo aspirations and in 1987, ABSU revived the Bodo statehood demand.

History of Bodoland

• Bodo Security Force which arose in 1986 as an armed group renamed itself NDFB, and later split into factions.

History of Bodoland

• Thefirst Bodo accord was signed with the ABSU in 1993. It led to the creation of the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) with some limited political powers.
• In 2003,the second Bodo Accord was signed by the extremist group Bodo Liberation Tiger Force (BLTF), the Centre and the state. This led to the creation of BTC, which is an autonomous body under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

What is the BTC?

• It is an autonomous body under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
• The Sixth schedule lays down a framework of autonomous decentralized governance with legislative and executive powers over subjects like water, soil, land, local customs and culture.
• These bodies have also been given judicial powers to settle certain types of civil and criminal cases also.

What is the BTC?

• Thus, the councils under the sixth schedule have been given more power than the local governments under the 73rd and 74th amendments in the rest of the country.
• ADCs have executive power to construct or manage primary schools, dispensaries, markets, cattle, ponds, roads and water ways, land revenue, forest, primary education, taxes, administration of villages and towns
• to adjudicate or try cases or customary laws in which both the parties are tribe but no case involving offences punishable by death transportation of life or imprisonment for not less than five years are heard and adjudicated by these courts.
• They have the responsibility for framing rules for the management of finances with approval of the Governor

Bodoland Territorial Region

• It would include the villages which are dominated by Bodos but are outside BTAD presently. Villages with non-Bodo population would be excluded from it.
• A committee will be formed to decide the exclusion and inclusion of new areas. Subsequently, the total number of Assembly seats will go up to 60, from the existing 40.
• Both the representatives of the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) and of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) will be present in the committee.
• Bodo-Kachari Welfare Council will be set up for focused development of Bodo villages outside BTAD.
• Bodos living in the hills would be conferred a Scheduled Hill Tribe status.
• Bodo language with Devanagari scriptwould be the associate official language for the entire
• the agreement has not addressed the issue of “citizenship or work permit”for non-domiciles in the BTAD yet.
• Around 1500 cadres of NDFB will be rehabilitated and assimilatedby the Central and the state governments
• The criminal cases registered against factions of NDFB members for non-heinous crimesshall be withdrawn and the cases of heinous crimes will be
• Comprehensive solutionshave been made to redress the grievances of the people.
• Families of the people killed during the Bodo movement would get ₹5 lakh each.
• A Special Development Packageof ₹1500 crore would be given by the Centre to undertake specific projects for the development of Bodo areas.

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