Assam Cong accuses BJP of ignoring corruption in hill districts

Guwahati: Ahead of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) elections and state Assembly elections 2021, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) general secretary Apurba Kumar Bhattacharya accused the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) of turning a blind eye to rampant corruption in Karbi Anglong & North Cachar Hills districts.

The senior APCC spokesperson during a press conference at Rajiv Bhawan in Guwahati on Monday said that during a recent rally in the hill districts, they received specific complaints of rampant corruption. “Syndicate raj is going on under chief executive member (CEM) of Karbi Anglong Tuliram Ronghang and NC Hills CEM Debolal Gorlosa.”

He said that coal scam is functioning openly in the area, and coal excavated from Meghalaya is also getting transported from there to Nepal and Bangladesh, without any government rules and regulations in place.

Further, he said that even pine trees, which were planted in the 1980s, are being exploited, and the department concerned is silent.

He questioned, “If they are not getting blessings from top of the state and top of the district councils, how did it happen?

The APCC spokesperson taunting CM Sarbananda Sonowal about his claims of corruption-free governance said: “if you [Sonowal] are not involved, if you are not enjoying a percentage of the syndicate profit then you institute an inquiry.” He asked the CM to take strong action against those involved in the syndicate raj at both the hill districts.

Further, commenting on Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 and Clause 6 report which was recently submitted by the high-level committee to CM Sonowal, Bhattacharya said that now the Union home ministry is denying to receive the report of the committee. “This shows how sincere the BJP, how committed it is to the indigenous people [of Assam],” he said.

He also alleged that after receiving warning from RSS headquarters, state finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and chief minister are jointly operating on another project called delimitation. Sarma said that it is to protect the political rights of native Assamese.

Under Article 82 of the Constitution, a Delimitation Act is conducted after every Census where the Centre constitutes a Delimitation Commission which demarcates the boundaries of the parliamentary and legislative assembly constituencies.

The Delimitation Commission had completed the delimitation exercise and the 2008 Delimitation Order for all states except Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland. In Assam, the process was suspended stating that without completion of NRC, delimitation cannot be accepted by people of Assam.

The APCC spokesperson alleged that “they [BJP] are always doing their politics by dividing Hindu and Muslim, saffron politics. We earnestly request to the people of Assam, be aware from such type of nasty and hasty politics initiated by BJP.”