KOKRAJHAR, Aug 13 � UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi today said refugees hit by the recent violence in lower Assam will have to wait for some time for the situation to become calmer before returning home, reports PTI.
�Naturally all refugees want to go back home, but this will take some more time till the situation is a little calmer,� Gandhi, who was accompanied by Union Home Minister Sushil Shinde and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, told reporters outside the Titaguri relief camp.
�Once feelings are assuaged, the Chief Minister and others will make sure that they are able to go home,� Gandhi said in a brief statement.
Ethnic clashes in Assam have claimed 77 lives. Gandhi said she asked the refugees whether they were facing any problem in the camp or had any complaints but they replied they had none.
�The refugees said that they were receiving rations regularly. Only two children were unwell and the doctors will attend to them,� Gandhi who arrived here by helicopter from Guwahati, said.
She was accompanied by Assam Pradesh Congress chief Bhubaneswar Kalita, Bodoland Territorial Council chief Hagrama Mohilary and state ministers.
Gandhi also met 25 delegations from various political parties and civil society organisations and discussed measures to restore peace in the violence-hit areas of lower Assam.
She met Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) chief Hagrama Mohilary, Bodoland Peoples Front, All Bodo Students Union, All Koch Rajbanshi Students Union, All Bodoland Minority Students Union and Bodo Sahitya Sabha besides senior members of district Congress.
Our Golakganj Correspondent adds: UPA chief, Sonia Gandhi along with Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi visited four relief camps namely Barkanda Peoples Academy High School, Mashpara High School, Bilashipara High School and Indra Narayan Academy, Bilashipara in Dhubri district and met with refugees.
The refugees who are staying at different relief camps in Dhubri district today submitted a memorandum to Gandhi demanding immediate seizure of illegal arms in BTAD area, arrangements to set up permanent Army camps in the affected villages, and dissolution of BTAD with immediate effect.
Our Kokrajhar Correspondent adds: Even as Sonia Gandhi and Shinde visited Kokrajhar a two kg crude bomb was recovered under a bridge on NH-31 at Padmabil area under Gossaigaon subdivision today.
According to sources the bomb was detected by the locals who informed the Army and the latter defused it at a safer place. It may also be mentioned here that today in Kokrajhar town AASU supporters burnt effigies of Gandhi, Shinde, Tarun Gogoi and Himanta Biswa Sharma.
Meanwhile, Hagrama Mohilary, chief of BTC today submitted a memorandum to Sushil Kumar Shinde, urging him to transfer the home department to BTC for handling the law and order situation in BTAD.
