Governor’s address
Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Feb 11: The Assam government is giving topmost priority to security and development in the border areas and connectivity to such regions is being strengthened, Governor Jagdish Mukhi said on Thursday.
Delivering the Governor’s address in the Assam Legislative Assembly, which was tabled and considered to be read amid pandemonium by opposition Congress and AIUDF members, Mukhi also said the report of the high-level committee on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord is being examined by the government and that the economic engine of the state is now back on track due to improvement in the COVID-19 pandemic situation.
The government is taking steps to reach out to neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and West Bengal over development issues, he said. For the international border areas with Bhutan and Bangladesh, developmental schemes have been taken up to meet the needs of the people, he said.
The Governor said Special Supervision Task Forces have been constituted for review, supervision and guiding the investigation of CAA-related cases as well as to take steps to prevent violent agitations.
On the Act East policy, he said the government plans to hold road shows in Myanmar, and similar programmes in Thailand and Bangladesh to promote trade, tourism and educational exchanges.
In the last four and half years, the government has distributed more than 3.35 lakh land pattas and allotment certificates to landless families. He said construction work for six new medical college and hospitals was going on in full swing and four more medical college and hospitals are in the pipeline. Construction works have also started to establish 10 cancer hospitals.
The Governor said that the State government has planted over eight crore saplings covering an area of over 12,000 hectare, and forest area of over 3,341 hectare has been freed from illegal encroachment.
For providing bigger habitats to the rhino and other wild animals of Kaziranga National Park, the government has issued notification of three new additions, he said.
To protect the Assamese language, the government has decided to make teaching of Assamese language compulsory in all English and other medium schools, except in the Barak Valley, BTR and hill districts. He also said that bank accounts of around nine lakh school students have been opened and 20,188 school students have been enrolled for Aadhaar. Free textbooks for the academic year 2021 will be provided to 41,48,899 learners of government and provincialized schools.
