KARIMGANJ, April 1 � Congress president Sonia Gandhi today said her party will not compromise on the security and integrity of Assam and the country and dismissed charges of encouraging influx in the State, reports PTI.
�Congress has often been accused of encouraging influx from Bangladesh but this is not the truth.
�It (Congress) has never compromised on the security of Assam and the country and will not ever do so in the future,� she told a campaign rally at Neelam Bazar in Karimganj district bordering Bangladesh.
The party, she said, has never compromised where security was concerned as it �did not believe in that kind of politics�.
It was the Congress government in Assam that had taken up updating of the National Register of Citizens with March 21, 1971 as the cut-off date, she said.
Appreciating the Tarun Gogoi government for development in Assam, she said the law and order situation in
Assam has changed �tremendously� in the last ten years and peace and development is returning to the State.
�The situation changed tremendously during the last ten years of Congress rule under Tarun Gogoi, with peace and development returning to the State and schemes being speedily implemented,� Gandhi said.
She said, �The State was in an all-round mess ten years ago when the AGP was in power with even government employees not getting salaries and people were not able to go out of their homes because of poor law and order.�
The Congress government has laid stress on education as the party considers it an investment for the children�s future, the UPA chairperson said.
The State government has already given computers to children who secured first division in the matric examination and cycles to girl students of class VIII so that they could go to school without any difficulty, she said.
�The Congress also proposes to set up a Barak Valley Engineering College and a Polytechnic Institute in Karimganj, she said.
Gandhi arrived to address three election rallies at Karimganj, Bokajan and Khumtai going to polls in the first phase on April four.
Gandhi said the UPA government under the leadership of Manmohan Singh had laid special emphasis on education by implementing the Right to Education Act, under which each child below 14 years of age would be provided free and compulsory education.
Speaking about the importance of surface transport, she said the UPA government was fully aware about it in the development process and sanctioned a broadguage railway line from Silchar to Guwahati and double laning of the national highways.
On minorities, she said, it was during the UPA-I government that for the first time a separate ministry for minorities was set up to ensure their development.
On women, the UPA chairperson said, the Congress realised that no State or country could develop without the progress of women.
�It is our government that has initiated several schemes to make them self-reliant not only economically, but also politically, by increasing their reservation in panchayats and zilla parishads,� she said.
The salaries of anganwadi workers have been doubled to Rs 3,000 and their children provided insurance facilities, Gandhi said.
�You have already seen what the AGP in the State and the NDA at the Centre have done. The Congress is not among those parties which make false promises and forget all about it when they come to power,� she said.
Appealing to the people to vote for the Congress, she said, �Cast your valuable vote for all Congress candidates so that the party can make your beautiful State more prosperous and developed.�
