Prime Minister’s Assam visit

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— Shibdas Bhattacharjee Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Sing’s recent visit to Assam was a significant one as it took place on the backdrop of on going controversy regarding the issue of illegal migrants that came to limelight after Gauhati High Court judge BK Sarma’s observation that Bangladeshis have already become “kingmakers” in Assam. Nor the Prime Minister gave any indication that the present UPA Government led by him gives any importance to the issue of ISI machinations in Assam as part of the design to establish a greater Islamic State of Bangladesh with Assam which the Gauhati High Court declared as the most serious threat before the indigenous people. In fact. after two decades since the Assam Accord was signed in 1985 neither the Central government nor the State government took any effective step to solve the problem of illegal Bangladeshi influx although the AGP came to power with a big bang deal with a promise with this problem. However, the State Government called upon the Prime Minister to take up the issue of deportation of Bangladeshi nationals detected in Assam with the Government of the neighbouring country and to provide “Punjab type” fencing along the international border to prevent fresh infiltration. In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi demanded that the Centre should give clearance for creating new river police battalions and take steps to amend the Citizenship Act for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The agreement between India and Bangladesh includes a provision of 150-metre wide no-man-land belt. Following the 1974 land boundary agreement between India and Bangladesh, a stretch of five km was demarcated but strip maps have not been exchanged.The highlight of the Prime Minister’s visit was however; that Dr. Singh laid the foundation stone of Jorhat Medical College. The Prime Minister mentioned that the North East, with its pool of well-educated and progressive women, would produce large number of doctors and nurses, given the right opportunities. Dr Singh assured a group of 27 Majuli-based Satradhikars, that the Centre would not rest till the river island got the coveted status of a World Heritage Site. He reiterated that the Union Government would take all possible steps to protect Majuli and preserve the rich cultural heritage flourishing in the island.Prime Minister Singh also said that his Government would look into the demands of the IITs to exempt them from the purview of reservation in the selection process of their faculty members.So also, the Assam Government sought a series of incentives from the Centre to improve the education scenario in the State and called for amending the North East Industrial and Promotion Policy to provide incentives to the refineries. With a thrust on the education sector, the Prime Minister announced a package for Assam heavily loaded with proposals to create world-class educational institutions in the State. A world-class university, an institute of petroleum technology and a national design institute on the pattern of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad was a part of the Prime Minister’s package. The Centre will also assist the State Government in setting up a State skill development mission to encourage employment and skill development among the youths of Assam. The package also provides for setting up of a model school in every development block under the proposed Centrally-sponsored scheme for “Model Schools”. On the other hand, the Prime Minister also announced that the Centre would provide the Assam government all necessary assistance for setting up a centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology in the State. The North East Industrial Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP) will also be suitably revised so as to attract investment to the region. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will take up the Ohola-Sadiya Bridge which will be completed by 2013. The Numali-Gohpur bridge linking Jorhat to North Lakhimpur will also be taken up and completed by 201 3. In the package flood control measures and integrated development of Majuli will be accorded top priority and adequate funds will be provided for the purpose. A high-level monitoring group. with representatives of the Central and State governments and the Satradhikars will be set up to guide the process.An allocation of Rs 20 crore as additional Central assistance for Majuli will be made available to the Assam Government. The Central Government will provide additional assistance of Rs 250 crore for the integrated development of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). In so far as the other autonomous Councils of North Cachar Hills and Karbi Anglong are concerned, the State Government will prepare and submit a plan for the integrated infrastructure development, to be funded from the Rs 500-crore rupee corpus recently announced by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram for infrastructure development in the North EastAll these promises made by the Prime Minister during his visit to Assam may apparently seemy to be very encouraging but this visit looked more like an election visit and keeping in view the upcoming general elections Dr Singh tried to project a very encouraging picture of Assam declaring some proposals to promote education and economic sectors of the State. But whether these proposals will get implemented or not is a very difficult question and the people of this State are aware of such earlier proposals and the ultimate outcome of those. No wonder that the Prime Minister was in the State to lay the foundation of Jorhat Medical College, to assure the people of the State of three more bridges over the Brahmaputra for better communication, and to tell the Satradhikars about the projects to develop Majuli. The most important question regarding the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Assam was certainly that he did not try to address or rather sidelined the core issues of the State, namely, the issue of illegal infiltration, increasing act of terrorist networks sponsored by Bangladesh and more importantly initiation of the dialogue process with the ULFA through the PCG. In fact the Prime Minister should have realised the fact that there practically exists no immigration law in Assam when it comes to illegal Bangladeshis and so he would have addressed the issue with utmost importance keeping aside the political compulsion of his party as far as the minority vote bank is concerned. So also it was expected that the Prime Minister would respect the sentiment of the indigenous people and try all possible options to avoid a similar situation of Assam agitation that is emerging in the State once again because of the issue of illegal infiltration. Considering all these Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit to Assam was a big fiasco. sourcE: assam tribune editorial