Major Events Vol. 3 Issue No. 32

August 1-15, 2007

“Special scheme for border areas”: Gogoi

Assam Government is planning to adopt a special scheme for the development of bordering areas of the State. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi revealed this to a delegation of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) The Government will take all possible steps to ensure lasting peace in the inter-State border areas, he assured the delegation.

The Chief Minister also told the AASU delegation, which called on him to discuss the issues concerning the inter-State boundaries, that the Government had attached priority to the construction of border roads and electrification of the border areas using solar energy.

It is also desired by the Government to set up Border Out Posts (BOPs) at appropriate places and settling the ex-servicemen in the border areas. Moreover, steps are in the pipeline to strengthen the village defence parties by equipping them with modern arms and ammunition and providing them with more facilities, said the Chief Minister.

If the situation so demands, licences for arms will also be issued to them, he said, assuring steps for adequate compensation to those who were affected in the latest spate of violence in the Assam-Nagaland border areas. They will also be rehabilitated. Those who lost their homes, will be provided with houses under the Indira Awas Yojana, he said.

The State is not expanding its areas and it wants permanent solutions to the border disputes with its neighbouring States through mutual cooperation. It is accepting the boundaries determined by the Constitution of the country. The State is awaiting the verdict of the Supreme Court of India to end its border disputes with its neighbours once for all, he said. In the discussion, Press adviser to the Chief Minister Deba Kumar Bora was also present.

Meanwhile, AASU said in a statement that its delegation had asked the Chief Minister to take concrete steps to ease the tension on the State’s borders with Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

The students’ body also demanded of the Government steps to detain the people with dubious citizenship who had come from Arunachal Pradesh in temporary camps and stayed in the State and to initiate legal action against them.

Its president Sankar Prasad Rai, general secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi and adviser Dr Samujjal Bhattacharya led the delegation of the students’ body. It submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister demanding solution to the border dispute.

The delegation members alleged that the Government’s lackadaisical attitude towards the border problem had aggravated the situation in the border areas. They also asked the Chief Minister to deploy more security forces along the border and to compensate the people who had suffered losses in the recent border flare-up.

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