Guwahati, July 28: Tribunals constituted under the Foreigners Act will henceforth be monitored by a ?hawk-eyed? panel to ensure accountability for delays in disposal of cases, an oft-heard complaint when the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act was in force in Assam.

The idea of keeping these statutory judicial bodies on their toes, albeit without any interference, came from chief minister Tarun Gogoi. He ostensibly said in a meeting yesterday that the mountain of pending cases ? the 32 tribunals set up under the Foreigners Act are still saddled with over one lakh citizenship-related complaints ? necessitated a speedier adjudication process.

The meeting finally decided to set up the monitoring cell under the political department (home). A senior official in the home department said the cell?s brief would be to facilitate speedy disposal of cases by fulfilling the needs of the tribunals and keeping vigil from a distance. ?Although it will not directly interfere in the functioning of the tribunals, the panel will have the right to monitor how the judges are performing,? he added.

The government recently appointed judges for all the tribunals, but infrastructure remains a problem. ?The role of the proposed monitoring cell will also be to arrange for whatever infrastructure is necessary. The requirements of the tribunals have to be fulfilled in time,? the home department official said.

He quoted the chief minister as saying in the meeting that slow disposal of citizenship-related cases would reflect poorly on the government and that was a valid reason to monitor the functioning of the tribunals.

Gogoi set August 31 as the deadline to complete the first phase of updating the National Register of Citizens. The first phase entails scanning the citizens? register of 1950. The chief minister also insisted on ?time-bound implementation? of the Assam Accord of 1985.

The government is also understood to have decided to evolve a consensus on the definition of the term ?Assamese?, mentioned in Clause VI of the Assam Accord. The word has been the bone of contention between the All Assam Students Union and organisations representing various ethnic tribes.

?The chief minister believes that the views of all political parties and major organisations should be solicited to find a broad definition of the word. The AASU and the Asam Sahitya Sabha have already given their views to the government,? the official said.

A clear definition for the term became necessary when Delhi raised the question at a tripartite meeting, also involving the AASU, on implementation of the accord.