Leader of the Opposition in Assam Assembly Debabrata Saikia
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Opposition Congress on Wednesday (September 18, 2024) slammed the BJP-led Assam government, claiming that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has raised the issue of Assam Accord implementation to divert public attention from alleged corruption by his family.
Addressing a joint press conference, Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia and Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah said the state government’s assertion to implement 57 recommendations of the Justice Biplab Kumar Sarma Committee on Assam Accord has no basis as only the Centre can execute the same.
“CM Himanta Biswa Sarma wants to confuse people of Assam to sail through the 2026 assembly polls. Corruption by his family is a big issue in people’s minds. He has raised the Assam Accord topic just to divert public attention from his family,” Mr. Borah said.
He said the recommendations of the committee to execute all the clauses of the Assam Accord can be implemented by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and it does not fall under the ambit of the state government.
“Why is he not making it public how the state will implement 57 clauses of the report? The CM is leaving those 10 clauses which are the souls of Assam Accord. There is no word from the MHA also regarding the report and its applicability,” Mr. Borah said.
Mr. Saikia said he had asked the state BJP leadership to hand over the committee report to BJP’s national president J P Nadda for giving it to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, but it has not been done yet.
The Union Home Ministry had constituted a High-Level Committee (HLC), headed by Justice Biplab Kumar Sarma, for speedy implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
On February 25 of 2020, the Committee had submitted its report on implementation of Assam Accord to the then Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal for handing it over to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
In October 2021, the Assam government had set up an eight-member committee to prepare a framework within three months for implementation of all clauses of the 39-year-old Assam Accord, especially the Clause-6 report prepared by the Justice Biplab Kumar Sarma panel. It is yet to submit the report.
On September 4, the chief minister said that the Assam cabinet had decided to implement 57 of the 67 recommendations given by Justice Biplab Kumar Sarma Committee on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
The cabinet discussed in detail the various recommendations given by the Committee to protect and safeguard the land, language and culture of the indigenous population of Assam, the Chief Minister had said.
The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 after a six-year long violent anti-foreigner movement. It stated, among other clauses, that names of all foreigners coming to Assam on or after March 25, 1971 would be detected, deleted from electoral rolls and steps would be taken to deport them.
Published – September 18, 2024 03:50 pm IST