Cutting across party barriers Congress, BJP and AGP had refused to respond to the Speaker's appeal unless the collected fund was divided between Assam and Bihar.
Congress MP from Assam Kirip Chaliha will not pay any money for flood relief in Bihar. Addressing a press conference in Guwahati on Monday, Chaliha said he is ready to urge both Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari to issue an appeal to help Assam flood victims in the same line.
Chaliha said, “the Assam MPs are unhappy over the fact that Mr Chatterjee has issued an appeal only for Bihar when similar destruction has taken place in Assam also.”.
The MP from Guwahati made it clear that he would not respond to the appeal of the Speaker of donating Rs 25 lakh by each MP from the local area development fund for the flood victims in Bihar.
According to Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) MP Arun Kumar Sarma, ''Assam is also under water like Bihar and I do not think my inner sense will respond to the Speaker's call that Rs 25 lakh from the MP local area development fund should be handed over to Bihar for relief and rehabilitation when there are so many things to be done in Assam,'' said whose constituency is the most flood prone of the region.
BJP MP Rajen Gohain said, he would also follow the suit adding, “'when my own house is under water why and how should we help others? The ruling Congress too has joined the growing chorus.
Meanwhile, AGP MP Sarbananda Sonowal had already wrote it to the Vice-President as well as the Lok Sabha Speaker on the same issue urging them to intervene on behalf of Assam.
PermalinkSubmitted by Juri Gogoi on Wed, 10/09/2008 - 15:54
I fully support the MPs of Assam and agree with the version given by Rajen Gohain that when my own house is under water and in the same condition; how can I even think for the neighbours. Top of that when there is a Bihar state Governement along with the state Assembly, MPs and local MLAs of Bihar and the Central Government to look after the state, why it is focused on specially only the Assam MPs. Will Lalu Prasad yadav will come and help the Assam flood victims?
Yes, on humanity ground, we have no objection if somebody offers any help for the flood victim willingly, in fact we will appreciate.
PermalinkSubmitted by Neelakshi Barua on Wed, 10/09/2008 - 20:15
I have totally failed to understand the hue and cry over the floods in Bihar. While the flood victims have my total sympathy, after all who knows floods better than the axomiyas, I have never seen much noise being made about floods in Assam at any point of time in the past. If any donations have to be made it should be for the Assamese flood affected people first; then only can we turn our attention to other states. Moreover I do not see much reaction from the Centre about the state of the rhinos in Kaziranga affected by the floods. This, after being the only sanctuary where the one horned rhino is found in such abundance in the world.The MPs have every right to refuse to donate and I am glad that they have spoken up so openly about it. Hopefully the Centre will open their eyes and wake up to the situation in Assam.
-- Neelakshi.
PermalinkSubmitted by Indranee Dutta on Thu, 11/09/2008 - 19:56
After a long slumber at last our own MPs have woken up for a cause. I hope they will keep waking till other serious problems of the state are addressed by the Center. Assam needs proactive sensitive, honest, thoughtful and bold leaders, which we are yet to see.
PermalinkSubmitted by Saurav on Mon, 15/09/2008 - 03:05
We, the people of Assam, are to blame for the poor state of affair in our state. We take it for granted that we have to live in the same state as we have been living in the past. Floods come every year yet we do not project this to the whole world. Our projection is not up to the mark. It is not only the "news" that matters, our CM should have been crying at the top of his voice. We are too proud to cry and for ages have been missing on the milk. It is good to see our ministers cutting across party lines to demand for a fair treatment to our flood victims. But it would be more effective if the same press conference is held at Delhi to make their presence felt. This issue has not found place in any of the national news.
Life in BTAD areas and Dhubri is limping back to normal. There was no report of any fresh incident from Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts during the last 24 hours. But night curfew would continue. A CBI team on Friday visited Kokrajhar to gather inputs on the ethnic clashes that took 77 lives. Headed by a special director K Saleem Ali and Deputy Inspector General Satish Golcha the team gathered inputs on the main reasons behind these incidents.
They further would try to ascertain the possible angle of their investigation. The team straightly left for Joypur village where four Bodo youths were lynched spreading the violence to other places. This was followed by their visit to...
Security forces have apprehended six of ULFA militants and seized two powerful bombs during an encounter in Tinsukia district on Friday. Getting wind of the presence of an ULFA group, police launched a search operation in Borburi area since in the evening where the encounter followed. Two cadres were nabbed while another fled away. Five more cadre of ULFA were arrested following the interrogation of the duo and two powerful IEDs arrested from an abandoned cremation ground, 500 metres from the parade ground where the district administration was due to hold the I-Day parade.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is likely to reshuffle his cabinet. According to top sources, the reshuffle is expected in between August 20 and 25. Two cabinet ministers are likely to be dropped. A former minister is likely to be inducted. Congress high command is understood to have issued a letter to the chief minister ordered the ministries to be reshuffled within this month.
The reshuffle is the fall out of a rift between Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and a Cabinet minister of the state government Dr Himanta Biswa Sarmah.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde would visit Kokrajhar on Monday. This was confirmed by AICC general secretary in charge of Assam Digvijay Singh on Friday when he was addressing a press conference in Guwahati. During the visit, the duo would take stock of the situation prevailing in BTAD areas and Dhubri district.
Dhubri on Friday witnessed strident protest against BJP leader L.K. Advani’s alleged attempt to politicize the BTAD violence. Hundreds of protesters burnt Advani's effigy a day after he had said that the violence should not be seen as a communal incident.
AIUDF on Friday demanded immediate removal of Tarun Gogoi as Assam Chief Minister alleging that the minority people are not at all safe at the hands of Gogoi. A delegation of the party led by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and later demanded the removal of state chief minister Tarun Gogoi.
Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Sonia Gandhi, he said that the violence was only a false front to rid the area of non-Bodos. Before that the AIUDF delegation met Union home minister SK Shindhe.
There is no rift in the state cabinet on the ethnic clashes in BTAD. This was simply what AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh said on Friday. Addressing a press conference in Guwahati, Singh said that the report of rift in the cabinet is a media creation. Singh said that the people should come together and usher peace in the BTAD area. He urged all political groups to bury their differences and work together in this time of crisis. The AICC leader said on July 20 they were in position.
A CBI team on Friday gathered vital inputs in Kokrajhar to begin its probe into the ethnic clashes in BTAD areas. Headed by A Ali, the two member team will ascertain the possible angle of their investigation. With the police in four affected districts - Kokrajhar, Chirang, Dhubri and Baska - registering 309 cases in connection with the violence, CBI is yet to decide on the cases it would investigate.
Senior cabinet ministers and state Congress leaders on Friday resolved to mend the difference between government and the party on the BTAD clashed. This was simply what a crucial meeting of cabinet ministers and party leaders decided in presence of AICC leader Digvijay Singh.Convened at Koinadhara, the meeting was attended by chief minister Tarun Gogoi and his senior colleague along with APCC president Bhubneswar Kalita, Paban Sing Ghatowar, Bhumidhar Barman, Sarat Borkotoky and several others.
CBI is preparing to probe only 7 cases instead of 309 cases handed over by Dispur. The CBI team led by S Ali decided to register 7 cases after consultation with chief minister, DGP and chief secretary and other top officials. The 2 member team left for Kokrajhar in the morning to gather priliminary information and would be back to Delhi in the afternoon.
Comments
Pages
Add new comment