Nellie massacre: Government tables Tewary Commission report

The Assam Government on Tuesday distributed the report of the Tewary Commission, which had probed into the 1983 Nellie massacre during which over 2,000 people were killed, and large-scale violence that year, in the Assembly on the first day of the Winter Session. The printed copies of the report were placed on the desks of the MLAs during the proceedings. The House will, however, not hold any discussion on it, said Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The Commission of Enquiry on Assam Disturbances 1983, headed by retired IAS officer TP Tewary, was constituted on July 14, 1983, to investigate the violence in the State that year. The final report was submitted to the then-Congress Government in May, 1984, with the next Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)-led Government tabling it in the Assembly in 1987.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that no copies of the report were made available to the MLAs, with only one copy submitted to the Speaker.

A recent Cabinet decision of the present BJP-led Government, of which AGP is a partner, had said that hard and soft copies of the report will be circulated in the Assembly during the Winter Session. The Copy was also given to the Assembly Library.

The government laid in the assembly the reports of two probe panels — TP Tewary Commission set up by the Government, and TU Mehta Commission formed by a civil society group and supporters of the Assam Agitation — on Tuesday, months before the assembly elections.

Sarma said that the placing of both the reports was an ‘academic exercise’ and will bring to the fore a ‘big chapter in Assam’s history’.