Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will reach Assam on a two-day official visit commences from Monday amid expectations to announce hefty financial package to the flood-ridden state. Security has been beefed up ahead of Dr. Singh’s visit to the state facing trouble owing to insurgency and illegal influx of Bangladeshi migrants.
Dr. Singh, a member of Rajya Sabha from Assam, will not only address the various problems facing the state but also lay the foundation stone of a number of educational projects. Apart from laying the foundation stone of Jorhat medical college- state’s fourth one and addressing a public meeting soon after landing there, the Prime Minister will also inaugurate mobile medical units for 17 districts of the State.
Official sources also say that he will make an aerial visit to Majuli, South Asia’s largest river island, after which will hold a meeting with the Satradhikars, a vaishnavite monastic heads of the state.
Majuli, a fluvial landform, is located in midstream Brahmaputra, about 320 km from Guwahati. Once World’s largest river island, it is now on the verge of extinction owing to erosion by the annual floods in the river. A monastic head said that Prime Minister would be requested to protect and preserve the rich cultural heritage and take the initiative to comprise the island as a World Heritage Site. “Floods and erosion” will be the key issues of our problems, the locals said.
The same day on his way to Guwahati, Dr. Singh is also expected to address another public meeting at Nagaon. In Guwahati, the state’s most populous city, the Prime Minister is scheduled to meet Assam Governor SC Mathur and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and other cabinet colleagues at the Raj Bhawan.
"We are positive and hopeful that the prime minister will address the various problems facing the state," Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi stated in Guwahati on Sunday.
On Tuesday, he would attend a meeting at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IITG) and head for Kokrajhar in lower Assam. The Prime Minister is also expected to address the media at the Lok Priya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport before taking off for New Delhi in the evening.
Various organisations and groups have planned to submit memorandum to the Prime Minister over the ‘burning’ issues facing by the state, sources from the Assam government said that however all these issues would find place in the memorandum to be handed over by the Chief Minister.
“We have already prepared an official submission to be submitted to the Prime Minister by Assam Chief Minister and it includes everything—Bangladeshi influx and sealing of the Indo – Bangla border issue to NRC updating to world heritage site status to Majuli to the six communities demanding for inclusion into the ST status,” said the sources.
"We hope the prime minister announces some concrete steps to solve the insurgency problem by offering unconditional talks with the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom), besides measures at tackling infiltration," said Atul Bora, leader of the opposition Asom Gana Parishad.
Before the PM’s arrival security across the State has been beefed up and additional forces have been deployed across the State.
It will be Manmohan Singh’s second visit as a Prime Minister to the north-eastern states after Arunachal Pradesh. In late January this year Dr. Singh had visited the Arunachal Pradesh, where he announced a major financial package to address the critical infrastructure and connectivity requirements of this sensitive border State.
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