In Ulfa camps that struck truce, a sense of cautious optimism

It is an early January morning at Dayrong in Assam's Goalpara district, 120km west of Guwahati; early enough for the winter mist to obscure the pock-marked red and green board that announces the name of the compound:

- Utpal Parashar

DAYRONG (GOALPARA, ASSAM):  Nava Nirman Kendra. Sixty-two-year-old Kakiram Rabha, the lines on his face battle-hardened both by age and a life of conflict, is staring at his phone that has not stopped ringing since the sun began peeking through the sky. He answers some calls, lets others be. For even he, the most senior man at the designated camp for surrendered cadres of the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), has very few answers.

On December 29, in what all sides called a historic agreement that will push Assam further along on the road to permanent peace, the government of India, government of Assam, and the pro-talks faction of PIC Ulfa signed a tripartite THE memorandum of settlement that saw the militant group officially lay down arms after a violent 43-year movement. The pro-talks faction that has close to 700 cadre, has been confined to nine designated camps, called Nava Nirman Kendras, since 2011 when they first sat across a negotiating table, and signed a suspension of operations deal. The Ulfa (Independent), led by fugitive leader Paresh Baruah, that has close to 200 armed cadre, however, is still operational, with camps in remote parts of the North-East and across the border in Myanmar.

In the deal, the Union government promised a clutch of projects for Assam worth around 1.5 lakh crore. Ulfa, represented by 16 senior signatories, was also promised an ex gratia payment to its cadres, economic support, vocational and government jobs "depending on eligibility". In return, the memorandum said, Ulfa agreed to surrender all arms, submit a list of all cadres, and empty its designated camps within a month.