GOALPARA, Nov 4 � In what could be the Asom Gana Parishad�s bugle call for the forthcoming 2011 Assembly elections, the mass contact programme, the Ganasanjog Yatra, was launched by the main Opposition party in Goalpara district recently.
All the party stalwarts including party president Chandra Mohan Patowary, Leader of Opposition Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, working president Phani Bhusan Choudhury, general secretary Atul Bora, Pabindra Deka, Prasanta Baruah, MLA, Bilasipara (East), Bhupen Rai attended a public meeting at Lakhipur in which around 6,000 people gathered to listen to the issues raised by them. On the top of their agenda were the issues of corruption and the sensitive and complex problems of various ethnic, indigenous and minority communities.
Addressing a gathering of around 3,000 at Goalpara town, Prafulla Mahanta, the Leader of the Opposition, lambasted the present Tarun Gogoi-led Government and said that it has failed to deliver the goods to the people of Assam as issues like the Rs 1,000-crore financial scandal in the North Cachar Hills, insurgency problems, border disputes with neighbouring States like Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh and the mega dam imbroglio which is hitting the headlines now, are compounding the woes of the present State Government.
He claimed that a number of welfare schemes for the poor people run by the present Congress Government started during the AGP term. But the present Government has simply given new names to those and is claiming them to be their own.
He also said that only a regional party like the AGP can fulfil the aspirations of the local people as it does not have to follow the diktats of New Delhi.
All the sensitive issues and problems of Assam do not find a place in the political agenda of the Congress which is a national party. Mahanta said that the AGP has a clear political agenda based on local issues and exhorted the people of the State to strengthen the unity of the Opposition.
He said that the foremost task before the AGP is to motivate all the like-minded parties to join hands with the regional party and strenghten the Opposition unity to oust the Congress from power in the ensuing 2011 Assembly elections.
Chandra Mohan Patowary, while addressing the rally, criticised the present Government for its alleged misdeeds and anti-people policies and ridiculed the implementation of the welfare schemes. He criticised the Government for launching the CM�s Anna Suraksha Yojana just eight months before the Assembly polls and said that this was a ploy to woo voters belonging to the economically backward sections.
According to him,the much-publicised scheme launched by the Congress Government for the BPL familes has been riddled with controversies and malpractices in the selection of the beneficiaries.
Referring to the Rabha Hasong political issue, he blamed the ruling party for the dilly-dalling tactics and accused the Government of nursing vested interests in solving the sensitive problems and demanded immediate holding of the elections for the formation of the Rabha Hasong council. He expressed solidarity with the Rabha people for fulfilling their political aspirations.
Others who spoke on the ocassion were the party general secretary Atul Bora, Pabindra Deka and others.
