GUWAHATI, Sept 24 � Accusing Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi of resorting to falsehood over the Indo-Bangladesh land-swap deal, the BJP today said that land belongning to Indian citizens paying land revenue was being handed over to Bangladesh as part of the pact.
Addressing a press conference, BJP spokesperson Sarbananda Sonowal said that the utterances of the State Government seeking to impress upon the people that not an inch of Assam�s land had been given to Bangladesh was totally incorrect as Bangladesh would now get hold of land possessed till date by Indian residents.
�Records with the Assam Government itself prove that people who are paying land revenue � like Sirajul Haque of Mankachar revenue circle � would now have to part with their land following the land deal,� he said.
Questioning why those people of Assam have been made to forfeit their land ownership right to the Bangladesh Government, Sonowal said that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi never deemed it fit to take the border area residents into confidence while toeing the lines of the Centre as part of its Bangladesh-appeasement policy.
�This deal has clearly compromised on Assam�s interests and the BJP will continue to oppose it wholeheartedly,� he said.
Sonowal said that the Congress� soft corner for Bangladeshi infiltrators was an open secret � something testified to by various acts of ommisison and commission on the Congress Governments� part.
�On the Assam-Bangladesh border, the Border Security Force (BSF) is asked to fire rubber bullets at infiltrators whereas on the Indo-Pak border infiltrators are shot dead. Then in Assam, the State Government turns a blind eye to Bangladeshi infiltrators settling on forestland while the indigenous people living for ages are inhumanely evicted,� Sonowal maintained.
The BJP leader also questioned the State Government�s rationale in having a high fee of Rs 300 for Teachers� Eligibility Test (TET) in which lakhs of unemployed youths � many from poor backgrounds � would appear.
�It is illogical to subject income-less unemployed youths to such steep fees. At the most the fee should be Rs 50,� he said.
