The Congress will not compromise on the security and integrity of Assam and the country, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi asserted on Friday and rubbished the accusation that her party encouraged influx of foreigners.
“The Congress has often been accused of encouraging influx, but this is not the truth. The Congress has never compromised on the security of Assam and the country and will never do so in the future,” she said referring to influx of foreigners from neighbouring Bangladesh.
“It is the Congress government in Assam that took up the issue of updating the National Register of Citizens with March 21, 1971 as the cut-off date,” she told an election rally at Neelam Bazaar in Karimganj district bordering Bangladesh.
Attacks AGP, BJP
Hitting out at the AGP and the BJP, the Congress president said: “You have already seen what the AGP in the State and the NDA at the Centre have done. The State was in an all-round mess 10 years ago when the AGP was in power with even government employees not getting their salaries and people not being able to go out of their homes due to the poor law and order. The situation was very bad. But now there is a sea change.”
“You have given them [the AGP and the BJP] a strong reply in the last 10 years and the Tarun Gogoi-led government has laid the foundation for development here. Now we have to build on that foundation,” she said.
Citing WikiLeaks disclosures, she accused the BJP of indulging in “opportunistic politics” and asked how people could believe that party.
Right to Education
Ms. Gandhi asserted that the UPA government had laid special emphasis on education by implementing the Right to Education Act whereby each child below 14 years would be provided free and compulsory education, while mid-day meal schemes were introduced in government schools. The State government had already given computers to children who secured the first division in the matriculation examination and cycles to girl students of Class VIII.
It was proposed to set up the Barak Valley Engineering College and a polytechnic institute in Karimganj.
Minorities
Ms. Gandhi reached out to the minorities saying that it was during the UPA-I government that a separate Ministry for Minorities was set up to for the first time to ensure their development.
A food security scheme had also been implemented.
The UPA government had sanctioned a broad gauge railway line from Silchar to Guwahati and double-laning of national highways.
Health insurance
Addressing another rally in the tea tribe-dominated Khumtai constituency, Ms. Gandhi said national health insurance being provided to the below poverty line people was extended to tea garden workers. A special tea garden package had been given to Assam for reopening of sick gardens, she said.
