Assam Legislative Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary has delivered a scathing assessment of the Bodoland Territorial Council's governance, revealing that hundreds of crores in government funding remain unused each year due to systemic administrative breakdowns.
The BTC receives between Rs 800-1,000 crore annually from the government, yet fails to utilise Rs 200-300 crore due to poor execution and administrative bottlenecks, Daimary disclosed during a media interaction in Kokrajhar.
"The BTC has not been able to set up a proper administrative system. Laws and regulations are not being implemented effectively. This lack of a streamlined and functioning structure is causing various problems across departments," Daimary stated.
The Speaker's critique extends beyond financial mismanagement to highlight how bureaucratic inefficiencies burden ordinary citizens. He cited land transfer procedures as a prime example, where residents must travel from Gohpur to the BTC Secretariat in Kokrajhar for basic periodic patta transfers.
"For something as basic as transferring land with a periodic patta, one has to travel all the way from Gohpur to the BTC Secretariat in Kokrajhar. These matters should be resolved at the local revenue circle office level," he remarked.
Development schemes, including Pig Mission, Agriculture, Handloom, and Sericulture, have also fallen short of expectations despite sound conceptual frameworks, according to Daimary.
"There is no point in allocating funds or creating departments if the system itself doesn't work. Without correcting the mechanism, these investments yield no real benefits," he emphasised.
The Speaker's comments carry particular weight as BTC prepares for upcoming elections, with notifications expected in August. While national parties may participate, Daimary noted that local candidates will ultimately contest, and voters will decide the outcome.
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