THE BUDGET-Defining the Deficit

of the MOS notes that "the General Council [a 40-member body, corresponding to a state assembly, 35 of whom are to be elected and five nominated by the state government] shall be consulted [by the state government] and its views shall be given due regard before any law made on the following subjects is implemented in the BAC area: (1) the religious or social practice of the Bodos; (2) the Bodo customary laws and procedures; and (3) the ownership and transfer of land within the BAC area". The contrast provided by these safeguards and those provided in the analogous provision in the Mtzoram accord (Clause 4.3 .ii) tells more about the toothlessness of the present accord than any amount of welljustified self-congratulation in official circles in the Assam government as well as in the state Congress(l) over the successful outwitting of the Bodoland agitationists.