Looks like GOA and GOI army have failed to give protection to the
outsider investors against ULFA. How they will protect the Hindi
speaking people?
State development hit hard by violence
By R Dutta Choudhury
GUWAHATI, Jan 21 - Acts of violence by the militant groups have a
disastrous impact on the development of Asom and all the major
development projects almost came to a standstill after the recent spurt
of violence involving the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in the
upper Asom districts. Highly placed official sources said that after the
mayhem caused by the ULFA militants by attacking Hindi-speaking people,
almost the entire State administration got busy in maintaining the
law-and-order situation and the Ministers also had very little time in
looking after the development projects of their respective departments.
The Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, who heads the Home department, was busy
in monitoring the situation arising out of the killing of more than 60
Hindi-speaking people. The Chief Minister also holds key portfolios like
Finance, Public Works Department, etc. and in the last few days since
the mayhem started, he had very little time to look into the activities
of the other key departments.
Same is the case with several other major departments with the Ministers
in charge of the departments busy in monitoring the situation arising
out of the killings. Sources pointed out that the Minister in charge of
Power and Industries and Commerce, Pradyut Bordoloi, had camped in
Tinsukia district to monitor the situation for more than ten days.
Planning and Development Minister, Prithibi Majhi, camped in Dibrugarh
district, Water Resources Minister Bharat Chandra Narah was in Lakhimpur
and Tinsukia districts, while Minister Pranab Gogoi was in Sivasagar
district. The Health and Guwahati Development Department Minister
Himanta Biswa Sarma paid several visits to the affected areas and he was
also busy with the visits of the VIPs and addressing media conferences
on the issue, while the Revenue Minister, Dr Bhumidhar Barman, was busy
with the relief and rehabilitation measures of the people displaced
during the riots. With the Ministers busy in dealing with the situation,
the functioning of the departments was affected.
Sources pointed out that the district administrations are normally in
"development mode" but whenever the insurgents indulge in law and order
violation , the attention of the administration is switched to law and
order mode. The Deputy Commissioners get busy in maintaining law and
order, while the magistrates, who are engaged in monitoring development
projects, are also engaged in law-and-order duty, as a result of which
all the development projects, particularly the rural development
projects, are affected. With the exodus of labourers, the implementation
of several key projects including the construction of the Bogibeel
bridge over the river Brahmaputra have been affected badly, sources
admitted.
Official sources also admitted that the acts of violence by the ULFA
militants also put off the potential investors. Sources revealed that at
one point of time, about six months back, the State Government received
a number of queries from the top industrial houses of the country, who
were interested in investing in Asom, but the number of queries came
down drastically after the ULFA started the mayhem and if such a
situation continues, the potential investors will definitely shy away
from the State. It is also a fact that the gauge conversion project of
the Railways and the National Highway project were affected from time to
time because of the acts of violence by the militant groups and the
issue was discussed in a meeting convened by the Ministry of Home
Affairs recently to discuss the situation in the State.
Sources revealed that Tripura is the bigger beneficiary of the
activities of the militants in Asom. Sources said that in the last few
years, the situation in Tripura improved considerably and after the ULFA
militants started their acts of violence late last year after a brief
lull, a number of potential investors decided to shift to Agartala as
the investors get the same benefits like Asom under the North East
Industrial Policy.
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