Assam protests over Land swap deal continues, AGP bandh disrupts life
The Assam government on its part has maintained that Assam will formally gain 714 acres of land out of a total of 982 acres of disputed land along the border.
One day after Rajya Sabha ratified the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), groups in Assam continued with their protests, with normal life getting disrupted in several districts due to a 10-hour bandh called by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Thursday.
In Guwahati several leaders and members of the AGP were arrested for trying to impose the bandh by disrupting traffic and asking shopkeepers to pull down shutters. many vehicles were also damaged when protestors pelted stones to impose the bandh. Several AGP protestors were arrested in Sivasagar, Lakhimpur, Tinsukia and other districts too.
“Ratification of the LBA only revealed the true colours of the BJP which, during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections had promised to keep Assam out of the deal,” said AGP general secretary Durga Das Boro.
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The regional party also accused the BJP of compromising with the Congress party on the Bangladeshi influx issue at the cost of Assam’s security and territorial integrity, the AGP leader said. The BJP had played a fraud with the people of Assam in order to get votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.
The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on the other hand announced a state-wide protest over the LBA ratification – now Constitution 100th Amendment Bill – for Friday. AASU’s newly-elected president Dipanka Nath said it was strange that the BJP, which had all along sought Assam’s exclusion from the ratification, had joined hands with the Congress in the issue.
“The BJP-led government must tell the people of Assam why it finally agreed to part with some portion of Assam’s land. It should also make a commitment on when it will be able to seal and secure Assam’s international boundary with Bangladesh and detect and deport all Bangladeshis who have entered Assam illegally,” the AASU president said.
The Congress on the other hand demanded resignation of all the seven BJP Lok Sabha members from Assam for making a u-turn on the issue. “Why have the seven BJP MPs from Assam remained silent when they had taken votes from the people by promising to keep Assam out of purview of the LBA?” asked Assam Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Ripun Bora.
The Assam government on its part has maintained that Assam will formally gain 714 acres of land out of a total of 982 acres of disputed land along the border.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called up Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and thanked him for extending all support and cooperation in getting the historic India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement passed in the Parliament.
Source:: Indian Express
