BJP government has failed on all fronts: Congress

GUWAHATI: The Congress has alleged that the BJP-led government at Dispur has failed on all fronts – in law and order, finance, rural development and what not.

Addressing the media at Rajiv Bahwan in Guwahati on Saturday, Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia said: “This government has failed in providing security to life of people and their property. Killings, kidnappings, lootings, subversive activities are going on in the State. Provocative statements from some BJP leaders have aggravated the situation. The year 2018 started with the murder of businessman Shantilal Jain in Bijoynagar on the outskirts of Guwahati. Since then, various areas of Assam have witnessed sharp rise in incidents of robbery, theft, lynching, abduction, killings, extortion and bomb blasts. After several years, Guwahati witnessed a bomb blast recently in the Panbazar area. It was followed by the massacre of five innocent people in Dhola. Last week two were killed in a blast at Demow. There are many such incidents happening in the State.”

Saikia said: “The BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the State are ignoring the sentiments of the Assamese people and going ahead with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Even senior police officers of Assam have admitted that this factor has provoked a section of youths join the ULFA (Independent). Senior leaders of the state BJP, including Himanta Biswa Sarma, Rajen Gohain, Jayanta Malla Baruah and Rupam Goswami, are aggravating the situation by making injudicious remarks.”

On financial front, Saikia said: “Due to fall in revenue collection by 15-20 per cent post-GST, the Assam government has been forced to burrow unprecedented sums of money from various sources. During 2016-17 and 2017-18 the State government has borrowed over Rs.15,000 crore (Rs. 5649.45 crore in 2016-17 and Rs. 9716.3 crore in 2017-18) from sources such as NABARD, RBI, etc. This is much higher than the amount of loan taken by the previous government in the State.” On rural development, Saikia said: “In the P&RD sector, out of the 2.27 lakh works selected for implementation only 30,940 works have been completed. No MGNREGA jobs have been undertaken in 48 gaon panchayats. In five districts, no family got 100 days of work.”

Saikia said: “The State Government announced a scheme to provide uninterrupted power supply to important tourist spots like Kamakhya, Sualkuchi, Majuli, Pabitora etc. However, the scheme has remained a non-starter because the sanctioned amount of around Rs 39 crore has not been released by Dispur.”

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