GUWAHATI, Aug 29 � The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today demanded immediate steps to ink a repatriation pact with Bangladesh for repatriation of the Bangla nationals staying illegally in Assam.
The State Government should mount adequate pressure on the Government of India (GoI) for inking this pact during the forthcoming trip of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to the neighbouring country, said the regional party in its memorandum to the Governor of the State here today.
It also demanded speedy implementation of the Assam Accord and updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) expeditiously. The all party decision to update the vital document taking March 25, 1971 as the cut-off date and conducting even the DNA tests of those whose documents submitted for the purpose of inclusion of names in the document are not found perfect has not been honoured so far, it said.
AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary told this newspaper that the GoI cannot send back the Bangla nationals detected in the country to their country of origin unless this pact is signed between the two countries.
He further said that the memorandum included the demand for bringing back the adverse possession land of the State, which are under the possession of the neighbouring country. The statement of the State�s Chief Minister in this respect goes against the sovereignty of the country.
The Chief Minister should rather emulate the example of Farooque Abdullah of Kashmir, who said that not an inch of Kashmir land would be handed over to Pakistan, in this respect, the AGP memorandum said.
The memorandum also called for urgent steps to seal the Indo-Bangla border. The GoI stress in this regard should be the same with that of the Indo-Pak border, said the AGP in its memorandum. A Government, which fails to bring back the country�s land from foreign occupation, is a meaningless one, it said.
It also opposed the move of the Central Government to set up new mega dam hydroelectric projects in the NE region stating that the hydroelectric projects on the Ranganadi and the Kurichu should act as the eye�opener in this respect.
On the issue of recognizing the flood and erosion problems of the State as the national ones, the party said in its memorandum that though Prime Minister Dr Singh agreed to accept the problems as the national ones in a tripartite meeting on May 5, 2005 on implementation of the Assam Accord, an official announcement has not been made so far in this respect.
The GoI should initiate official steps to declare the problems as the national ones without any delay, the memorandum said.
It also called for a permanent solution to the State�s boundary disputes with its neighbouring states. Due to the non-resolution of the inter-state boundary disputes, the Merapani-like situations have been occurring. In this respect the AGP president referred to the plea of the all party delegation led by Tanka Bahadur Rai the Speaker of the 12 th State Assembly before the Central Government and said that his party today demanded firm steps to resolve these disputes.
The party also demanded immediate steps to arrest rise in the prices of essential commodities and steps to make the Public Distribution System (PDS) effective. The party also pressed for an effective Lok Pal institution for the country and an effective Lokayukta institution for the state.
The party members went to the Raj Bhawan in a procession from the Ambari headquarters of the party, via Guwahati Club and handed over the memorandum to a representative of the district administration of Kamrup (Metro).
