The convention has been convened by Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) chief Hagrama Mohilary.

The names of a new president and secretary and other party functionaries will be announced during the open session tomorrow.

Sources said the names of Lok Sabha member Sansuma Kungur Bwiswmuthiary and BTC deputy chief Chandan Brahma figure on the top of the list of contenders for the posts of president and secretary of the parallel committee. Rabiram Narzary and Bodoland Demand Legislature Party MLA Hemendranath Brahma hold these posts in the BPPF central committee.

On Saturday, Mohilary formed the Bijini and Kajalgaon parallel district committees of the party at a public meeting at Borobazar in Chirang district.

Ganesh Brahma and Manik Basumatary have been made president and secretary of Bijini committee while Kampha Borgoyari and James Basumatary were selected president and secretary of the Kajalagaon unit. Mohilary floated the parallel district units of the party in Kokrajhar, Gossaigaon, Parbatjhora and Chirang in September.

Mohilary and Narzary had fallen out during the first elections to the BTC in May this year.

Though different Bodo organisations, including the All Bodo Students? Union and the Bodo Sahitya Sabha, tried to resolve the differences, they were unsuccessful.

BPPF president Rabiram Narzary expelled three of its vice-presidents, including BTC deputy chief Chandan Brahma, BTC executive member Sobharam Basumatary and Baktar Ali Ahmed of the Regional Minority Front, on charges of anti-party activities in November last year after a party meeting in Dotma.

The three campaigned for candidates backed by Mohilary in the byelections to the two BTC constituencies of Dotma and Banargaon, which were held recently.

The Hagrama Mohilary faction of the BPPF won both seats in the byelections, defeating the Narzary faction despite the latter being backed by the All Bodo Students? Union. In Bonargaon, Narzary himself suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Mono Kumar Brahma, who won by a margin of 5,883 votes. Dhakendranath Brahma won the Dotma seat, defeating Shankarlal Brahma by a margin of 2,808 votes.

The organisation that spearheaded the momentous June uprising in Manipur has come out with a comprehensive demographic study that chides ethnic groups for targeting one another while ignoring a silent invasion that could lead to migrants constituting as much as half of the state?s population in 30 years? time.

The influential United Council, Manipur (UCM), had constituted a 13-member team, including Manipur University teachers and an official from the central government?s census directorate, for the study.

The 231-page report, titled Influx of Migrants into Manipur: A Threat to the Indigenous Ethnic People, was the result of a minute analysis of census reports and statistical handbooks published by the statistics and economics department. Koijam Sethajit, a lecturer in political science at Imphal College and a member of the study team, described the report as an indictment of political patronage of migrants.

According to the report, the majority of these migrants are from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Shethajit said it was a shame that various ethnic groups were locked in conflict even as a common but invincible threat was taking shape in the form of influx.

?In 30 years? time, all the ethnic groups will be either marginalised or wiped out. The issue of territorial integrity or other such agendas will then be rendered meaningless,? he said. ?The people of the Northeast should join hands to fight against influx.?

Ironically, the UCM?s campaign to ?safeguard? the state?s territory has brought it in direct confrontation with the Naga community, which has been fighting for the integration of all Naga-inhabited areas of the Northeast. The June uprising was the fallout of the erstwhile Atal Bihari Vajpayee?s decision to extend Delhi?s ceasefire with the militant NSCN (I-M) beyond Nagaland territory.

The UCM-commissioned report states that as many as 99 per cent of the hawkers registered with the Imphal Municipal Council are not ?indigenous people?.

The organisation?s president-in-charge Konsam Langamba said copies of the report would be sent to Delhi and the Okram Ibobi Singh government with a request to take immediate steps to protect the indigenous people from ?impending doom?. He said a copy of the report had been already mailed to a parliamentarian of the Netherlands, who would submit it to the United Nations.

Accusing politicians for allowing the influx for political gains, the study team said the floodgates were opened in 1950, when the Foreigner Permit System introduced by Manipur?s Kings was withdrawn after Manipur became a part of the Indian Union. It criticised the Centre for lifting the Foreigner Permit System and refusing to introduce the Inner Line Permit system in Manipur.

The UCM is preparing to generate awareness among the people about the impending danger and also launch a campaign against the influx.

Khumujam Ratan Kumar Singh, the associate editor of the report, warned that with the introduction of the new Look East policy and introduction of trans-Asian highways and railways, more migrants would enter Manipur.

Tripura?s indigenous populations became minorities in their own state following largescale migration from other parts of the country and the influx of Bengali refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan. This led to the formation of the two main militant outfits of the state, the All Tripura Tiger Force and the National Liberation Front of Tripura.

Assam, too, witnessed an anti-foreigner agitation that culminated in the signing of the historic Assam Accord of 1985.

On the basis of the complaints filed by AASU, the commission has registered two cases and asked the commissioners of Lower and Upper Assam to furnish separate reports on the incidents.

The students? union also sought the commission?s intervention to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in future. ?AHRC chairman Justice S.N. Phukan has given us his assurance that the commission will ask the state government not to use repressive measures on peaceful and non-violent movements,? AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya said.

The commission also promised AASU leaders that it would despatch a team to Sivasagar to obtain a first-hand account of the incident.

The Kamrup (metropolitan) district administration today entrusted additional district magistrate Madhurima Barua Sen to conduct an inquiry into the alleged police excesses on schoolteachers at Dispur on Tuesday.

Protesting teachers were caned and teargas shells were burst in Guwahati on Tuesday and in Sivasagar on Thursday, injuring several of them. The AASU has also demanded compensation for the injured and stern action against the officials responsible for these incidents.

?The teachers, along with activists of the AASU and the Asom Unnati Sabha, were holding a peaceful demonstration in Sivasagar demanding their salaries, when they were chased and mercilessly beaten up by the police. We condemn the police action in the strongest possible terms,? AASU president Sankar Prasad Ray said.

He also denied police claims that they had to lathicharge the protesters since they started pelting stones at policemen. ?The protests were peaceful till the police started an unprovoked lathicharge,? Ray added.

AASU general secretary Tapan Gogoi accused the state government of denying the people their democratic right to protest in order to conceal the government?s failure to resolve the problems plaguing the teaching community.

A recent MPC executive meeting said despite the government having said Mizoram has no official boundary contradiction with Assam, the fact remains that there is a boundary disagreement since the Centre had not taken any advise from Mizoram leaders when the Northeast reorganisation took place.

The MPC?s stand is that when Mizoram and other states were carved out of Assam in 1972, the first Mizoram Union territory government had sought a redressal on the lands demarcated as Mizoram, as this did not conform to territories previously believed to be under Mizoram?s jurisdiction.

In a statement, the party said a boundary argument had arisen again in 1994 when Assam moved its southern boundaries to the edge of Vairengte village in north Mizoram. ?There was such a hue and cry at that time that the dispute reached the ears of central leaders, resulting in a meeting of Cachar district collector and Mizoram chief secretary at that time,? the statement said.

The statement also added that it regretted the boundary commission?s omission of Mizoram?s dispute to be taken under its consideration. ?We demand that the state government take steps to see that Mizoram?s boundary dispute is put under the purview of the commission for consideration,? it added.

The announcement came a day after it set a December deadline for Dispur to take concrete steps to implement the decisions on the tripartite talks it had with the Centre and the state government on the Assam Accord earlier this year.

Demanding scrapping of Clause 3 (1) A and B of the Citizenship Act that grants citizenship to children of foreigners who have entered the country by 2004, the influential student body will be holding a satyagraha on December 12, said its president Shankar Prasad Rai.

The AASU has been maintaining that citizenship on the basis of birth should not be granted to any illegal immigrant. ?We will not tolerate any move to grant citizenship to the children of any illegal immigrant and we will take bold steps to prevent such a move,? AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya said.

The students? body will also hold a demonstration on December 17 demanding a proper probe into all the cases of secret killings.

It further decided to protest against the continuous influx from across the border by ?forming a human chain? along the Indo-Bangla border in the Karimganj and Dhubri sectors. However, the date of the programme has not been fixed yet.

The AASU has also lined up agitation programmes against tea companies, saying they were not protecting local interest. It will observe December 5 and 6 as ?demand days? in support of ?adequate? recruitment of local youth in the tea gardens. The union said tea gardens should, as far as possible, locally procure their requisite materials.

AASU general secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi said they had yesterday sent a communiqu? to chief minister Tarun Gogoi expressing their displeasure over the slow progress in implementing the decisions arrived at in the tripartite talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

A five-member AASU delegation had held the meeting with the Prime Minister in the presence of Gogoi on May 5. In the meeting, Singh had promised to implement the accord within a specific timeframe.

The AASU and the Asom Unnati Sabha will launch the Asom Sena in Barpeta on December 8 to protect the rights of the indigenous people.

A highly-placed source said the decision was taken at a meeting convened by the Union home ministry to review the peace process in Nagaland. Top officials of the army and several senior bureaucrats, including defence secretary Shekhar Dutt and home secretary Vinod Duggal, participated in the review session. Also present was former home secretary K. Padmanabhaiah in his capacity as Delhi?s chief interlocutor in the talks with the NSCN (I-M).

It was the second high-level meeting on the Naga impasse in less than a month. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Oscar Fernandez, who heads the group of ministers negotiating with the NSCN (I-M), participated in the first discussion.

?The government has discussed all possibilities and decided that if they (NSCN-IM) continue flexing their muscles, we will also keep our options open,? the source said, implying that Delhi was not inclined to extend the truce for the sake of it.

The NSCN (I-M), too, has been threatening to abrogate the ceasefire agreement ? signed in 1997 ? if Delhi does not give in to its demand for the integration of all Naga-inhabited areas of the Northeast. The next round of talks is to be held in Bangkok on December 15, but NSCN (I-M) chairman Isak Chishi Swu is reportedly stranded in the Philippines because his visa has lapsed.

The ceasefire has been hanging by a thread ever since the NSCN (I-M) declared that its activists had ?pulled up their socks? in readiness for a possible breakdown of the talks.

Lt Gen. Z.U. Shah, general-officer-commanding of the army?s 3 Corps, said it was about time both factions of the NSCN were prevented from moving about freely with firearms in civilian areas. ?The set of rules is such that there is scope for double interpretation. We have sent our recommendations to the army headquarters,? he said.

These recommendations were ostensibly discussed during the review session, after which Delhi decided to officially tell both outfits ?to mend their ways?.

Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio, who has often been accused of being ?soft? on the NSCN (I-M), admitted recently that both militant groups were equally guilty of violating the rules governing their ceasefire with Delhi.

Lt Gen. Shah described the situation in Nagaland as ?stable?, but said much needed to be done to keep the peace process going.

Addressing a news conference today on the eve of the BSF?s Raising Day, he said said his force was more concerned over the security of the border and transborder movement of militants to and from the neighbouring country.

He said the BSF was discharging its duties ?with utmost sincerity? and no individual or group could pose a threat to the border.

Dutta said the rapid progress in border fencing work would act as a major deterrent against infiltration and transborder movement of anti-Indian militants and Bangladeshi criminals.

Speaking about the problems faced by the BSF in Tripura, he said as most of the BSF outposts are located in far flung areas, it is not possible to provide proper health service.

As a result, health hazards pose more of a threat to the border force than insurgency. He said the force has lost as many as nine jawans to malaria but only four to militant attacks.

?We have as many as 21 posts along the border with the Chittagong Hill Tracts that have to be maintained and supplied by helicopter and extending proper health service, this is just not possible now,? Dutta said. He, however, added that he was trying to improve the internal health service of the force.

?We are also going for largescale computerisation and further improvement in our communication network,? Dutta said, adding that the training infrastructure for the jawans and officers was also being improved.

?We have also set up round-the-clock communication links with the state police for better co-ordination and in addition we are soon procuring one helicopter for full-time duty to cope with any emergency,? Dutta said.

Regarding the strength of the BSF in Tripura, the IG said that at present 12 battalions are posted here and in addition three battalions will arrive to bolster the strength of deployment.

?One battalion will be kept in reserve for deployment,? Dutta said. He said the BSF was fully prepared to cope with challenges.

Parliamentary affairs minister Bharat Narah made Dispur?s intention clear during a discussion on a call attention motion in the Assembly today.

Dilip Kumar Saikia of the AGP said the state was not only suffering economically from bandhs, its image outside was also taking a beating.

Welcoming Saikia?s arguments to adopt a resolution banning bandhs and curtailing the list of holidays, Narah said the government shares his concern vis-?-vis bandhs. Dispur will publish a white paper based on the survey initiated by the statistics and economics department, he added.

?We, too, do not support bandhs. First, we will try to create awareness by appealing to the parties and organisations to desist from calling strikes and if that too fails, we will bring in a legislation,? he assured the House, which was almost unanimous in condemning the bandh culture.

Saikia, supported by Independent legislator Pramila Rani Brahma, referred to surveys saying, ?We lose anything between Rs 50 and Rs 100 crore a day because of bandhs, which are successful even if it is called by an unknown organisation. Of 365 days, the working days are around 165, too less to make any speedy progress. We should not only curb bandhs but also restrict holidays. Instead of work culture, we are promoting a bandh culture.?

Sharing Saikia?s concern, Brahma said, ?It is really shameful. Outside, the state is not known as Assam but bandh pradesh. The time has come to enact a tough legislation to curb this menace.?

The discussion in the House comes at a time when citizens from various walks of life have launched a signature campaign calling for an end to the bandh culture. According to an estimate, the state has lost 62 days to bandhs this year.

However, the unanimity ended there. The House erupted soon after news of police using teargas and lathi on high school teachers filtered in.

The teachers, demanding provincialisation of their respective institutions, were teargassed by the police for staging a demonstration near Ganesh Mandir.

The police also resorted to a lathicharge to disperse another group of protesting teachers at Last Gate, arming the AGP and the BJP with a reason to stage the first walkout of the Assembly session this afternoon.

The government will issue a statement on the alleged police high-handedness on the teachers, who later courted arrest.

The Assembly also adopted a resolution to move the Centre to ensure that the proposed Myanmar-Calcutta gas pipeline passes through Assam.