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Guwahati, Oct. 26: Chief minister Tarun Gogoi today announced that Dispur would soon set up an expert panel to conduct a comprehensive study on the issue of unemployment in the state and suggest remedies to eradicate the problem.
Gogoi said the study would be published before Rongali Bihu in April next year.
On October 20, while releasing the white paper on the illegal immigrants’ issue, Gogoi had said the number one problem of Assam was unemployment.
“Unemployment is much more serious than the foreigners issue today,” Gogoi had said.
He asserted that unlike the AGP and BJP, his party was more concerned about solving the unemployment problem to prevent youngsters from straying into the wrong path.
“The erstwhile AGP government in the state and BJP-led NDA government in Delhi are infamous for their steps to put a ban on fresh employment. I cannot be like the Opposition leaders and thus decided to publish a comprehensive study on unemployment in order to adopt a roadmap to give maximum number of jobs to youths both in urban and rural areas in various ways,” Gogoi said.
The chief minister said his government was initiating various steps to solve the illegal migrants issue and publication of the white paper on the same was evidence of that. Copies of the white paper had been sent to different universities in the state for meaningful debate, discussions and necessary corrections or additions if required, he said.
The white paper spells out, in detail, the steps taken for the detection and deportation of foreigners, to check infiltration, seal the international border and a commitment to implement the 1985 Assam Accord.
It also mentions the road ahead, including updating the 1951 NRC within three years, fencing the border and strengthening the foreigners tribunals.
Gogoi strongly refuted allegations of a section of intellectuals and Opposition parties that the white paper was an attempt of the Congress to mislead the people on the foreigners issue. He asked the intellectuals to highlight the shortcomings in the white paper instead of criticising the Congress government.
“The Congress has taken much more initiatives than the AGP and the BJP to solve the foreigners issue and safeguard the rights of the indigenous people. We are (accused of) playing vote bank politics by giving shelter to illegal migrants. But since 1952, the Congress has been winning more seats in Upper Assam where indigenous people make up the majority of the population,” Gogoi said.
He said the Congress did not need the votes of only one particular community to win elections.
Gogoi even said the Assam Accord was signed only in 1985 because the AGP leaders who led the agitation turned 25 then and became eligible to contest the elections.
“The AGP accused me of showing disrespect to the Assam Agitation’s martyrs, which is absolutely false. But many lives could have been saved if the AGP had signed the Assam Accord in 1980. Way back in 1980, the Centre agreed to make 1971 the cut-off year for detection and deportation of illegal migrants. But the AGP leaders unnecessarily extended the agitation and signed the Accord in 1985 for their selfish reasons,” he said.
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