While driving out foreign nationals from Assam shall continue to be uppermost in the minds of all right-thinking Assamese for centuries to come,should the citizens of Assam also not concentrate on issues which are relevant for the over-all growth and economic prosperity of the state as a whole.
India it seems is shining -having acheived 9% growth rate for the last consecutive years.India,s exports are growing,Its foreign exchange reserves are at an all time high!Is ASSAM SHINING TOO.? JUST A FEW ISSUES TO PONDER OVER: 90% of wheat issued to Assam for P.D.S scheme for distribution among the people below poverty line are siphoned off to the open market and a large chunk does not even reach the state. There has not been a single proposal for setting up a special economic zone (s.e.z) in Assam even though this is one of the Govt's much touted schemes for speeding up economic developement in the country.States like Tamil Nadu,Punjab have taken the lead in this regard. Guwahati has been rated as one of the top 100 fastest growing cities in the WORLD in terms of population.This is because there is a mad rush by anybody in Assam with some economic means to live in the only city in north-east with some semblance of civic amenities.All other towns in Assam are totally bereft of modern civic amenities like piped ,clean drinking water,prpoper sewage system,,street lighting-people are lucky if they have uninteruppted electric supply in their homes for even 6 hrs a day,so on and so forth.There is a grandiose Prime Ministers Scheme for linking every village with a motorable road-Assamese people will consider themselves lucky if even the one and only grand national highway is kept motorable round the year.Floods, malaria,schools without teachers-(schools with computers is a distant dream which may come true after another century when schools elsewhere will perhaps switch over to something more advanced).........the list goes on And yet nobody in Assam deems it fit to take to the streets on such issues! We have bandhs every second day- I wonder how the Supreme Court ruling declaring bandhs illegal does not get implented in Assam.Recently when the Tamil nadu govt sponsered a bandh in the state on the Ram setu issue the court took the state govt to task.Perhaps the court turns a blind eye in Assam on the premise that there is little or no economic activty in Assam anyway. I hope the resolve to throw out the Bangladeshis alone will usher in econmic prosperit in Assam! S.R.Baruah
