PM to review progress of Accord

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh has assured a delegation of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) that he would call for reports from the Union Home Ministry and the Assam Government on the implementation of various clauses of the Assam Accord to personally review the progress. He also assured that the Centre would provide a special package for the Numaligarh Refinery to enable it to tide over the present crisis.A delegation of the AASU accompanied by Member of Parliament Sarbananda Sonowal met the Prime Minister at New Delhi yesterday to express the frustration of the organisation because of the failure of the Central and State Governments to implement the Accord. The AASU delegation also informed Dr Singh that even the decisions taken in a tripartite meeting chaired by him on May 5, 2005, are yet to be implemented.AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said that the Prime Minister himself described the slow progress of implementation of the Accord as “unfortunate” and assured that he would convene a tripartite meeting immediately after receiving the reports from the MHA and the State Government.In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, the AASU pointed out that all the major decisions taken in the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister remained on paper only. The memorandum said that the Union Home Minister assured to complete the border roads and fencing by the end of 2006, but the assurance remained on paper as the border with Bangladesh still remains porous. The AASU alleged that the Assam Accord Implementation Department of Assam is being headed by Dr Bhumidhar Braman, who turned out to be a “very inefficient Minister” while, the Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi deliberately allowed the department to be non-functional. The Union Home Minister also demonstrated casual approach to the problem of infiltration of foreigners, the AASU alleged.The memorandum said that the State and Central Governments promised to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of 1951 within September, 2007, but that promise also remained on paper as even the modalities are yet to be finalised.The AASU reminded the Prime Minister that he had declared floods in Assam as a national problem and alleged that so far the Government of India failed to take effective steps to deal with the problem. The students’ body urged upon the Prime Minister to take immediate effective steps to protect Majuli river island.The memorandum pointed out that no step has yet been taken to provide constitutional safeguard to the indigenous people of Assam under the provisions of clause 6 of the Accord, while, a decision taken to raise two additional battalions of Police to guard the international border has also not yet been implemented.In the last official level meeting to review the implementation of the Accord, which was chaired by the Secretary, Border Management of the Government of India, a decision was taken to establish detention camps to confine not only the persons declared as foreigners by the tribunals, but also the suspected migrants. But the Chief Minister is trying to project himself as the protector of Bangladeshis by refusing to establish such camps, the AASU alleged.The AASU also alleged that the families of the martyrs of the Assam Agitation are yet to be rehabilitated, while, the State Government has not paid heed to the suggestions of the students’ body and economists for the economic development of the State.Meanwhile, in a separate memorandum, the AASU demanded that the Government should immediately formulate a special package to enable NRL to tide over the crisis faced by it because of increase in crude oil prices and that the identity of Assam Oil Division should be maintained. Source: Assam Tribune