SILCHAR, March 2 � Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in a meeting organised at the Congress Bhawan here said that the Barak Valley people will get Rs 1000 crore if the electorate gives the Congress party 15 seats in the forthcoming Assembly election.
Gogoi said that he is aware about the problems of the Barak Valley. For this reason he has requested Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for Rs 1000 crore. The most important problem in this area is communication. He said that if the amount is sanctioned, then he will propose two alternative roads from Guwahati to Barak Valley. One is from NC Hills and the other one will be from Baithalangsu.
The meeting was presided over by the district Congress president Arun Dutta Mazumdar. Regarding the comment of Digvijay Singh during his recent visit that �Bengali Hindus are refugees�, Santosh Mohan Dev, former Union Minister requested Gogoi to give a clarification on the statement. Gogoi said that Bengali Hindus have never been refugees. He said that he will talk to Sonia Gandhi in this regard.
In his speech, Gogoi laid stress on development. He said that he is aware of the status of BG project and East-West corridor. He assured that he will take up these issues.
During the regime of AGP, the valley got 180 km of roads, but in the last ten years it has risen to 1400 km. There were only 50 bridges. The number has now jumped up to 260. In the name of development, the expenditure was Rs 78 crore, now the expenditure is Rs 884 crore. Besides this, he has managed to bring Rs 57,000 crore for the development of Assam from the Finance Commission, he said.
In his two-day visit to the Barak Valley, he laid the foundation stones of three projects: 30-bed model hospital at Chibitabichia, one by-pass highway at Ramnagar, Silchar and an engineering college at Malua in Karimjanj district.
