GUWAHATI, April 13 - Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president and Agriculture Minister of the State Atul Bora today asserted that his party is still against the big dam hydroelectric projects. Moreover, the regional party is also for determination and deportation of the illegal migrants on the basis of the provisions of the historic Assam Accord.
Talking to this newspaper, Bora said the party, a partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led ruling alliance in the State, is for small dam hydel projects and it denounces the big dam hydel projects. The party wholeheartedly supports the stand of the State�s experts on the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Power Project (LSHEP), he said.
It�s worth mentioning here that the four experts of the State, who were included in the eight-member project review committee by the Central Government, differed on the LSHEP dam�s height, foundation, location, downstream impacts etc., with the experts of other parts of the country, while reviewing the underconstruction power project, which has triggered a lot of controversy in Assam. These experts refused to endorse the opinions of the other experts on the power project and submitted to the Central Government a separate report on the project.
Bora also maintained that the Assam Accord should be accepted as the basis for determination and deportation of all the illegal migrants staying in the State. This stand of the AGP president goes quite against the bid of the BJP-led Central Government to settle the Hindu Bengali migrants from Bangladesh �in the face of religious persecution� even after the cut-off date of March 24, 1971 agreed upon by the Central Government and the leaders of the six-year-long anti-aliens Assam agitation while signing the Assam Accord in 1985.
Bora said that in determining and deporting the illegal migrants, religious or linguistic considerations should not be allowed to take the upper hand. Rather, he said the provisions of the Assam Accord should be the guiding principles in this respect, he said.
An AGP statement received here this evening quoted Bora as saying that the AGP would not tolerate highhandedness of any anti-Assam forces. The party will boldly uphold the cause of Assam and its people, said the AGP president.
