GUWAHATI, July 27 � A day after his visit to the trouble-torn districts of BTAD, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said that had the Army been deployed sooner, the situation would not have aggravated this much.
However, Gogoi said that it was the prerogative of the Centre and such deployment usually takes some time.
Altogether 45 people have died since July 20 in BTADs and nearly 4 lakh people displaced in BTAD and its adjoining districts. Three of the dead died in police firing.
Gogoi further maintained that he had not received any prior intelligence inputs from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in this regard.
Informing that the situation is crawling back to normalcy, Gogoi, while speaking to mediapersons today, said that the Government machinery has been pressed into action to provide relief and rehabilitation to the affected people.
Asserting that such instances are the fallout of the sense of deprivation and conflict of interests among different communities, Gogoi said, �Such issues can be addressed only through development, which is now our priority.�
Holding the BJP responsible for lending communal colour to the ongoing violence in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) and adjoining areas, Gogoi claimed that the violence was the handiwork of �miscreants� and the saffron party was playing politics by terming it as communal riots.
The Chief Minister also clarified that unlike what some section are claiming, no one has come from Bangladesh to spread violence and the miscreants are Indian citizens.
�I have never seen such rumour mongering in my life. Earlier too such incidents have taken place but this time fear psychosis in the minds of the people was high, as a result of which they fled from their homes in large numbers,� Gogoi rued.
Gogoi also flayed the All India United Democratic Front�s (AIUDF) for demanding his resignation.
�If the Chief Minister resigns in this situation, there will be more chaos,� he said.
Gogoi further assured the affected people that their land rights would be ensured at any cost, be it in the tribal or the non-tribal belts.
In previous communal riots in the State, 113 people were killed in 1994, 198 in 1996 and 186 in 1998.
In the last decade, 98 people were killed in communal violence in 2004, 106 in 2005 and 64 in 2008.
