CM takes potshots at Centre

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, March 10: Referring to the major challenges ahead for the State, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said indications of abrupt changes in policies and planning by the Central government in a manner that appear to ignore the special requirements of Assam, have created uncertainty and apprehensions.

Presenting his budget, the last of his third term, Gogoi said indications lately (from the Centre) are that the principle of assistance to special category states is being diluted.

“Such abrupt changes in policy by the Central government would not only leave the ongoing schemes in a state of uncertainty and possibly depriving millions of poor people, but also disrupt the efforts of special category states like Assam to progress,” Gogoi said.

With uncertainty in the pattern of Central assistance to many schemes and programmes, states like Assam, whose revenue base is limited, face a bleak future, he added.

The Modi government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, Gogoi said, will remain an empty slogan for states like Assam with huge gaps in infrastructure, lack of access to modern technology, technical capacity and idequate social and developmental investment.