GUWAHATI, Nov 17 - Apart from electing a new executive body, the next annual conference of the All Assam Students� Union (AASU), scheduled to be held in Duliajan from tomorrow, will deliberate on issues like the problems faced by students, failure of the Government to implement the report of the expert committee on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, National Register of Citizens, Citizenship (Amendment) Act etc and chalk out the future course of action of the students� body.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said that issues concerning the students of the State would get top priority during the deliberations in the conference. He said that as the Government of India is set to implement the New Education Policy, the State Government would have to give thrust on development of infrastructure. Without proper development of infrastructure, it would not be possible to implement the New Education Policy, he added.
Bhattacharya said that the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister did not keep their word of implementing the recommendations of the Committee on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord. Both the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister had assured that the recommendations would be implemented immediately after receiving the report of the Committee. Now the Centre is adopting delaying tactics and asked the State Government to seek legal opinion on the report. The committee was headed by a former Judge of the Gauhati High Court, while it also had advocate generals of two states as members. Despite that, the Government is seeking legal opinion on the report, which is nothing but delaying tactics, he added. He also pointed out that constitutional protection is a must for the indigenous people of Assam as the State had to take the burden of foreigners who entered India during the period from 1951 to 1971.
On the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Bhattacharya said that the AASU was not satisfied with the final NRC and demanded its re-examination.
He said that as the Government machinery was used to prepare the NRC, the Central and State Governments sabotaged the process as they were keen on bringing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. When the draft of the NRC was published, the Central and State Governments claimed the credit for it, but later, the Government sabotaged the process.
The AASU chief adviser also asserted that the indigenous people of Assam would never accept the CAA, which violates the Assam Accord. He said that people of all the states of the region had opposed the CAA, but the Centre tried to impose it forcefully. The situation in Assam cannot be equated with that of rest of the country as other states did not face the problem of infiltration of foreigners like Assam did, he added.
Calling for immediate steps for all round economic development of Assam to provide employment avenues for youths of the State, Bhattacharya pointed out in Clause 7 of the Assam Accord, the Centre promised to take steps for the economic development of the State to improve the standard of living of the people. But no such step has yet been taken and even the promise of declaring flood and erosion as national problems remained on paper.
It may be mentioned here that Bhattacharya has already announced that he would come out of the AASU during the ensuing conference.
