JORHAT, April 7 - To give a boost to the BJP poll campaign for the Jorhat parliamentary constituency, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, accompanied by senior party leaders today held two rallies despite rains playing havoc.
Both the rallies were delayed by about two hours due to continuous rain since morning here. In the afternoon Sonowal, accompanied by former BJP State unit president Romen Deka, incumbent Guwahati MP Bijoya Chakravarty, Batadroba MLA Angoorlata Deka and the Chairman of the Assam Tourism Development Corporation Jayanta Malla Baruah, addressed the meetings at Kalyani and Koranga outskirts here.
Sonowal, in both the rallies slammed the Congress party for doing precious little for the development of Assam despite remaining in power for most of the tenures after India gained Independence from British rule.
He also targeted former Chief Tarun Gogoi, who led three successive Governments for 15 years and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who has been representing Assam in the Upper House for over two decades, for not giving priority to State�s development and progress.
Stating that people of the State were forced to resort to agitation to get projects for infrastructure and economic development, the Chief Minister said that be it bridges over the Brahmaputra, oil refinaries, premier educational institutes, the Congress Governments did not sanction on its own initiative.
Pointing out that the Narendra-Modi-led Government had ushered in an era of progress and prosperity for Assam in particular and the north-eastern region in general, Sonowal gave a list of achievements of development initiated by Modi-led and his (Sonowal) Governments.
The Chief Minister said that in addition to the existing six medical colleges in the State, under his tenure eight more have been started and were under construction.
He further said 19 cancer hospitals across the State were under construction, while 240 skill development centres were opened with Central assistance due to the Prime Minister�s according much attention to Assam�s progress.
He added that soon the country�s first skill development university will be established at Mangaldai in the State in collaboration with Singapore.
Sonowal said that nine new engineering colleges and 20 polytechnic institutes were coming up soon in the State. Later, in the evening Sonowal held an interaction with selected citizens here at the Jorhat District Library auditorium.
