By IANS
New Delhi : The home ministry has agreed to Assam’s proposal to recruit ex-servicemen to battle the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and other militant groups that have been on a killing spree in the state, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said here Tuesday.
“I met the home minister (Shivraj Patil) and he has agreed to the proposal. There are some problems (on the issue) which the home ministry has agreed to look into, and the proposal is all set to get through,” Gogoi, who is in the capital, said at a press conference here.
The proposal to recruit ex-servicemen has been lying in limbo over the pay structure. As against the initial proposed pay structure of Rs.3,500 per month, the ex-servicemen have demanded Rs.6,500-7,500.
The home minister has agreed to resolve the matter, Gogoi said.
Admitting that “there is definitely a shortage of police personnel in the state”, the chief minister who met Patil on Monday, said that the home ministry was itself facing a shortage of security personnel to provide for the state.
Till the National Games, held in Guwahati in February, there were 158 companies of central paramilitary forces in the state. Of these, 40 were removed for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
“We (the state government) are now also planning to raise forces of our own,” he said.
Gogoi said his government was going to intensify operations against the ULFA and wanted the latest technology and gadgets to combat the militants.
“The home ministry has agreed to supply the latest technical equipment,” he said.
Referring to the recent killing of 29 Hindi-speaking people in the Karbi Anglong district, Gogoi said around five militant groups were operating there.
“There are Karbi as well as Kuki and Dimasa groups operating in the district,” he said, adding that a new police district is being created there.
The chief minister claimed that militants have changed their tactics after they were weakened by security forces.
“Earlier they used to attack security forces directly. But now, they are targeting innocent civilians. They hide bombs in dustbins, they move on rickshaws in civilian areas,” he said, adding that the killing of security forces has gone down significantly since his government came to power.
“Between 1996 and 2001, when the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) was in power, 400 security personnel were killed. Since 2001 when I became chief minister, 191 security personnel were killed.”
Rebutting criticism from the AGP, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party that his government had failed to provide security to Hindi-speaking people, Gogoi cited figures to counter the charges.
“During the AGP regime, 1,536 civilians were killed. But from 2001, till now, 1,212 civilians were killed,” he said.
“And the number of Hindi-speaking people killed is only a fraction of the total number of civilians killed in the state. Most of the civilians killed were Assamese.”
He countered the allegations of the opposition parties by asking: “Why are the AGP and BJP not equally concerned about the Assamese victims of the militants?”