Shah confident NE will be free from agitation, militancy by 2024

July 26, 2021 54 Views No Comment

GUWAHATI, JUL 26 (AGENCIES) : Union Home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the North Eastern region will be free from protests and militancy by 2024, exuding confidence in efforts by the Modi government to translate accords into deeds, reports the Times of India.

He said it was the Modi government which has attempted to implement the Assam Accord in true spirit ever since its signing in 1985.

“Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, the BJP-led government has changed the narrative in Assam, which stated protest was required for development. For development, cooperation and hardwork are essential,” he said at a government programme here in Guwahati on Sunday.

“The weight of dust was becoming heavier than the accords. It’s not the Congress but Modiji, who opened the Assam Accord again after 1985,” he said, adding that the credibility of deals done with Northeast organisations was waning.

He said starting from the third Bodo Accord to the pact signed with the Bru refugees, the government has fulfilled most of the clauses within a short span.

During the tenure of the Modi government, he said, 90 per cent of the conditions of the Bodo agreement have been delivered. “According to the Bru Accord, land allotment in nine out 14 places is complete. After 35 years, 35,000 Bru families will get land to live on by 2022, will get food to eat, Rs 4,500 pension and dignity as Indian citizens,” Shah added.

He said as an outcome of various peace deals, over 2,100 cadres of various outfits in the North East have laid down arms with the efforts of the BJP-led governments. “Formalities of the agreement with the Karbis is about to be finalised. Two armed groups in Tripura have also laid down arms. There have been numerous irritating elements in the North East which were hampering permanent peace,” Shah said.

“Blockades in Manipur, which were frequent earlier, have ended during the BJP government’s rule in the state,” he added.

Shah said the importance of the Northeast for the Modi government has been reflected with the inclusion of five ministers from the region in the Union council of ministers. “For the first time, five ministers from the Northeast have taken oath at the Centre. This had never happened since Independence,” he said.

Shah also laid the foundation stone of the Tamulpur Medical College and Hospital in Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), which chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma termed a vital gift of the recent Bodo Accord. Shah also launched distribution of Rs 1 lakh financial aid to the families of those who died of Covid in Assam under the “Prarthana” scheme, which was proposed in the state budget presented this month.

Earlier, he inaugurated the radio therapy block of the State Cancer Institute at GMCH and also dedicated a newly installed state-of-the-art linear accelerator machine at the centre to the people of the state, which is the sixth of its kind in the country.