GUWAHATI, May 8 � Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said that a �security force�, comprising local recruits, would be raised to man sensitive areas in the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) areas.
Addressing a press conference here, the Chief Minister said that there was no plan to provide personal arms to villagers in the violence-hit areas, but �we will ensure more security in all the vulnerable areas in BTAD�.
�We plan to increase the number of police stations and outposts in BTAD. Seizure of illegal arms is another concern which we want to address at the earliest. A special task force will be constituted for the purpose,� he said, adding that improving connectivity through roads and bridges, too, were among his priorities.
Gogoi also announced that a rehabilitation commission would be formed to expedite rehabilitation of orphans and widows in the wake of the BTAD carnage that had left 39 persons dead and 10 missing so far.
�The children, who have been rendered orphans by violence, will be rehabilitated through SOS Village, with the government bearing the cost, including that of education,� he said.
Gogoi said that a total of 22 persons had been arrested so far in connection with the BTAD violence.
He added that 65 people had been charge-sheeted by CBI in connection with the earlier bout of violence in BTAD in 2012.
Claiming that normalcy was returning in the violence-hit areas, Gogoi said that no incident had been reported since May 2. �Unlike in the earlier cases of clashes, there has been no large-scale displacement of people. Only 498 people are staying in the relief camps. 36 fixed security pockets are being set up in the violence-hit areas, while 34 additional companies have been deployed,� he said.
Condemning the carnage, the Chief Minister said that it was a case of most inhuman violence. �Even children and women were not spared. We won�t let the culprits escape,� he said.
Gogoi also stressed the need for long-term conflict resolution involving communities and doing away with misunderstandings.
Refusing to comment on statements made by several quarters, including minister Siddique Ahmed, who openly criticized the government for failing to prevent the carnage, Gogoi said, �My job is to restore confidence of the affected people and not to heed my distractors.�
PTI adds: �The special force will be raised with recruitment of local people on the lines of the Village Defence Party (VDP) to guard the vulnerable areas and for protection of the people there,� Gogoi clarified.
The people in the force will be recruited from local areas only, so that they will stay there and the problem of transfers will not arise, the Chief Minister said.
�We also plan to keep police pickets in those interior places, as well as in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao districts where such problems also recur from time to time,� he added.
�We will have coordination with neighbouring the Bhutan government as the attackers sometimes escape there and even in Arunachal Pradesh,� the Chief Minister said.
