State development hit hard by violence

Acts of violence by the militant groups have a disastrous impact on the development of Asom and all the major development projects almost came to a standstill after the recent spurt of violence involving the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in the upper Asom districts. Highly placed official sources said that after the mayhem caused by the ULFA militants by attacking Hindi-speaking people, almost the entire State administration got busy in maintaining the law-and-order situation and the Ministers also had very little time in looking after the development projects of their respective departments. The Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, who heads the Home department, was busy in monitoring the situation arising out of the killing of more than 60 Hindi-speaking people. The Chief Minister also holds key portfolios like Finance, Public Works Department, etc. and in the last few days since the mayhem started, he had very little time to look into the activities of the other key departments.

Same is the case with several other major departments with the Ministers in charge of the departments busy in monitoring the situation arising out of the killings. Sources pointed out that the Minister in charge of Power and Industries and Commerce, Pradyut Bordoloi, had camped in Tinsukia district to monitor the situation for more than ten days. Planning and Development Minister, Prithibi Majhi, camped in Dibrugarh district, Water Resources Minister Bharat Chandra Narah was in Lakhimpur and Tinsukia districts, while Minister Pranab Gogoi was in Sivasagar district. The Health and Guwahati Development Department Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma paid several visits to the affected areas and he was also busy with the visits of the VIPs and addressing media conferences on the issue, while the Revenue Minister, Dr Bhumidhar Barman, was busy with the relief and rehabilitation measures of the people displaced during the riots. With the Ministers busy in dealing with the situation, the functioning of the departments was affected.

Sources pointed out that the district administrations are normally in “development mode” but whenever the insurgents indulge in law and order violation , the attention of the administration is switched to law and order mode. The Deputy Commissioners get busy in maintaining law and order, while the magistrates, who are engaged in monitoring development projects, are also engaged in law-and-order duty, as a result of which all the development projects, particularly the rural development projects, are affected. With the exodus of labourers, the implementation of several key projects including the construction of the Bogibeel bridge over the river Brahmaputra have been affected badly, sources admitted.

Official sources also admitted that the acts of violence by the ULFA militants also put off the potential investors. Sources revealed that at one point of time, about six months back, the State Government received a number of queries from the top industrial houses of the country, who were interested in investing in Asom, but the number of queries came down drastically after the ULFA started the mayhem and if such a situation continues, the potential investors will definitely shy away from the State. It is also a fact that the gauge conversion project of the Railways and the National Highway project were affected from time to time because of the acts of violence by the militant groups and the issue was discussed in a meeting convened by the Ministry of Home Affairs recently to discuss the situation in the State.

Sources revealed that Tripura is the bigger beneficiary of the activities of the militants in Asom. Sources said that in the last few years, the situation in Tripura improved considerably and after the ULFA militants started their acts of violence late last year after a brief lull, a number of potential investors decided to shift to Agartala as the investors get the same benefits like Asom under the North East Industrial Policy.

(Courtesy: The Assam Tribune)

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