The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has opposed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Assam on February 22 owing to the Centre’s failure in implementing Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to dedicate to the nation some projects in the oil and gas sector in an event organised at Silapathar in north-eastern Assam’s Dhemaji district. He will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for a couple of engineering colleges.
“Despite visiting Assam a few times recently, the Prime Minister has kept mum on the implementation of Clause 6 and that of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act,” AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath said on Sunday.
The Clause 6 of the Accord, signed in August 1985 to end a bloody, six-year agitation for ejecting “illegal immigrants”, seeks to guarantee constitutional safeguards for the Assamese and other indigenous communities.
Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had a few days ago said the recommendations of a panel set up by the Union Home Ministry toward implementing Clause 6 were legally invalid.
“The Prime Minister should announce the deadline for implementing it. Our members will wave black flags and wear black badges during his visit to register their protest,” Mr. Nath said.
Protest against “land deal”
Locals around Dhemaji’s Piyang Sapori-Sitlamari, where Mr. Modi would be inaugurating or initiating work on a slew of projects, have been agitating against a “shady” deal to allegedly deprive them of about 2,000 bighas for some industrial projects.
Police said some protesters had blocked the highway and a bridge leading to the event venue besides attacking some security forces personnel and stoning the houses of some local leaders believed to have struck the deal for transferring the farmers’ land.
“The situation is under control and the agitators are being pacified,” a police officer said.
