GUWAHATI, July 2 � Accusing the Centre and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh of deceiving the people of Assam by not declaring the State�s perennial floods as a national problem and putting in enough efforts to find a lasting solution to the menace, the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) today said that the Assam Chief Minister�s role on the crucial issue was also �weak, submissive and shameful.�
�It is most unfortunate and regrettable that during their visit to flood-hit Assam today, neither Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh nor UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi choose to utter a single word on having the floods declared as a national problem. This amounts to a sheer deceit on the people of the State who are reeling under floods,� the AASU said in a statement.
The AASU further said that the Centre would do well to hand over to the people of Assam complete control over the State�s natural resources if it cannot solve the problem of flood and erosion as a national problem.
AASU president Sankar Prasad Rai, general secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi and adviser Dr Samujjal Bhattacharya said that the contrast in the approach of both the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson on the matter of floods or any other disaster in Assam and other States was too glaring to be missed.
�The Centre has never deemed it fit to accord the importance that the problem of perennial floods in Assam deserves. The conduct of the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson has once again reinforced that belief. The people of Assam have been betrayed time and again on this issue,� the AASU leaders said.
The AASU leaders said that it was all the more unfortunate that the Congress Government in the State had failed to harness the advantage of having a Congress-led Government at the Centre by extracting more concessions in the hour of crisis.
