Jobs, floods, foreigners in Cong charge sheet against Assam govt

Party General Secretary in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh and Chattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel simultaneously released the charge sheet from Guwahati and Dibrugarh, respectively, highlighting issues ranging from unemployment to floods, foreigners' problems, farmers and tea workers and the Assam accord. 

The charge sheet said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that after May 16, 2014, all Bangladeshis would have to leave bag and baggage and the BJP had also stated that there were 50 lakh Bangladeshis in Assam. 

"All these are false statements as these figures are different in the statements of Union Home Ministry, according to which 989 people in 2014, 474 in 2015, 308 in 2016 and 51 persons in 2017 were expelled as Bangladeshis. The number has further dwindled to 50 Bangladeshis pushed out of the country in 2018 and 2019," it said. 

The charge sheet, to be circulated across Assam in the form of a booklet, said the BJP's vision document had promised the state's farmers would get the minimum support price for paddy, "but only one per cent of the total paddy produced was at that price". 

The Congress charge sheet also said before the 2016 Assembly elections, the BJP had promised to provide employment to five lakh unemployed youths in the state every year. 

Jitendra Singh, however, said there are around three lakh posts lying vacant in different departments at present while the number of unemployed in the state has reached 40 lakh. 

Baghel said before coming to power, the BJP had promised to protect the "jati-mati-bheti" (community-land-base) but instead imposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on the people of Assam posing a threat to the language, culture and identity of the people of Assam. 

"The CAA is giving a red carpet welcome to illegal migrants to settle in Assam. The saffron brigade has failed to implement the Assam Accord in letter and spirit. 

"The BJP government has stalled the process of updating National Register of Citizens (NRC) for reasons best known to them. It is affecting the genuine citizens who did not find their names in the document," he said. 

Alleging that there have been a series of recruitment scandals, the Congress charge sheet claimed that the BJP government in Assam has failed to increase the daily wages for tea workers, despite a clamour among the tea workers' associations and a promise by the government to raise the wage to Rs 351. 

"The BJP has also failed to solve the flood and erosion problem faced by Assam or declare it a national problem, despite promises made from time to time," it said.