State Congress Leaders Raise Slew of Demands Before President, PM

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: State Congress Legislature Party (CLP) members and MPs of the party from Assam, led by Ripun Bora and Debabrata Saikia, submitted memoranda regarding important issues of Assam such as NRC update, floods and erosion, fate of the Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills etc to the President of India, the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, the DoNER Minister, the Civil Aviation Minister, the Central Water Resources Minister and the Petroleum Minister.

The NRC-related memorandum stated that in the first week of August, the NRC Authority suddenly directed thousands of people from Lower Assam areas to attend NRC hearings in places in Upper Assam which were 300-400 kilometres away. “They were given time ranging from less than 24 hours to 72 hours to make it to the hearings. Apart from other inconvenience, the mad scramble to attend the hearings without adequate conveyance at such short notice resulted in overcrowded vehicles meeting with accidents which left a few dead and many others injured,” the memorandum said. The Congress leaders of Assam demanded that the relevant modalities/SOP, as well as the Supreme Court’s directives, should be diligently followed to ensure publication of an error-free NRC on August 31.

Regarding floods and erosion, the Congress leaders mentioned in a separate memorandum that despite the devastation caused annually by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, data furnished in Parliament has revealed that the Central Government has not released a single rupee to Assam under the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) since 2014-15 till date. Similarly, there has been a noticeable shortfall between funds allocated and funds actually released for Assam by the Centre under State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) since fiscal 2014-2015. The Congress leaders demanded early release of adequate funds to cope with the damage caused by the latest wave of floods as a short-term measure, and declaration of the flood problem of Assam as a ‘National Problem’ as a long-term measure.

The Congress leaders also mentioned that the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati, which is the hub of all airline passengers not only of Assam but the entire Northeast, is now in the process of being handed over to a private party for operational purposes. They referred to reports that rules were bent to facilitate the transfer and that the successful bidder has fixed Rs.160 as per-passenger fee, which would put an additional burden on airline passengers from the economically backward region. The Congress leaders demanded cancellation of the move to hand over the airport at Guwahati to any private party.

With reference to the Sivasagar-based Assam Centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT), the Congress leaders pointed out that the RGIPT is functioning from a modest building and offering only diploma courses. The requisite infrastructure and faculty for graduate courses are lacking because the institute has not received any financial assistance after 2014. They demanded speedy release of adequate funds for improving the RGIPT, either from the Corpus Fund of OIL, ONGC, GAIL, HPCL etc, or from the Union Petroleum Ministry’s own funds.

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