By IANS,
Guwahati : After releasing a white paper on the foreigner influx issue, the Assam government is now planning to institute a commission to find out details of the unemployment problem in Assam and ways to end it, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said Friday.
Gogoi added that he would offer the findings of the proposed commission on unemployment to the people of Assam as a gift on the occasion of Rangali Bihu, which is celebrated in April.
“It will study how serious the unemployment situation is and how it can be solved. How much we have achieved in the last 10 years will also be analysed,” Gogoi said.
“We have released a white paper on the problem of influx of foreigners into Assam recently. Many have criticised me for the white paper but we are the only party who have brought to the fore facts related to influx problem for the first time,” said Gogoi.
“The issue of influx is in our election manifesto for the last three elections but it is not the main problem of Assam. I still stand by it. Economic development is the main problem. Our government had taken the issues of detection of foreigners in Assam and also took serious steps to stop influx,” Gogoi said.
Slamming opposition parties for “blowing the issue of influx out of proportion”, the chief minister said that even parties like the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the BJP did not mention the issue of influx as the state’s problem.
Gogoi also tried to silence his critics, who often slam the Congress party for indulging in vote-bank politics, by saying that it is the Election Commission of India (ECI) who prepares the voters list, not the state government.
“The ECI is an independent constitutional body. If the ECI fails to detect the names of Bangladeshis from the voters list, what can I do?” Gogoi said.
On the issue of the Naga peace talks, the chief minister Friday but made it clear that it should not be at the cost of the territorial integrity of Assam.
He reiterated his stand to oppose any proposal of redrawing inter-state boundaries to include Naga-inhabited areas into a ‘greater Nagalim’.
Territorial integrity of states like Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh assumes significance after Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde recently indicated that an agreement with Naga group National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) is likely before March. The NSCM-IM’s aim has been to establish a separate Naga state, Nagalim, in the northeast.
The Manipur cabinet has recently formed a four-member sub-committee to monitor developments in the Naga peace dialogue after Shinde’s comment.