North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) is threatening to launch a peaceful but aggressive agitation if the Central Government failed to fulfil its demands.  Its charter covers six areas: education and human resources development, infiltration, human rights, ban on cow slaughter and employment.

NESO leaders presented copies of their charter of demands to DONER Minister CP Thakur, Defence Minister, George Fernandes, Union Ministers of State ID Swami (Home) and Bijoya Chakravarty (Water Resources). “We have told Defence Minister, who is also the convenor of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) whatever we had to say to the Centre,” said NESO chairman Samujjal Bhattacharyya said. The meeting lasted an hour and he was satisfied with the discussions. While most of the demands were old, the joint body of the students contended that the lackadaisical attitude of the Centre in fulfilling its past promises had made the people of the region wary about the Government of India’s intentions. Failure to honour Assam, Manipur and Mizo accords in full is a case in point. “Look at the fate of the much-hyped gas cracker project, which is an Assam Accord project. Now Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is dictating terms to Government of India,” said the NESO chairman.

The Government has fenced the entire Indo-Pakistan border in Punjab in two years but the Indo-Bangladesh border in North-East still remains open and infiltration from across the border continues unabated. Curiously enough, NESO skipped the problem of insurgency, choosing instead to talk about other problems. Asked why this selective approach the reply was: insurgency is a burning issue of North-East; Government failure to initiate continuous political dialogue was the root cause of the militants in the region not taking Centre’s offer seriously. Government of India should make fresh attempts to break the ice.

General Secretary of All Assam Students Union, Amiyo Bhuyan said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was not at all serious about starting dialogue with ULFA and NDFB.

Among other demands, the NESO has sought a white paper on the issue of illegal infiltration. They have also called for introduction of inner line permit all-over the region, restoration of national register of citizens, intensive revision of the electoral rolls. The students also called for a special education commission, a special economic policy, and institution of standing committee to make a comprehensive study on the nature, causes and consequences of unemployment problems in the North-East.

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