hills team heads for delhi to meet upa leaders
HSDP leaders in Nagaon on Sunday en route to New Delhi. Telegraph picture	A Khadi Board office set ablaze by protesters in Diphu on Sunday. Picture by UB Photos

Nagaon, Aug. 4: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today asked state seekers to abjure violence and talk things out, as a political team from the state’s hill districts headed for New Delhi to present their state demand to UPA leaders tomorrow.

As violence entered the fifth day in Karbi Anglong and lower Assam braced for a flood of blockades and strikes by those demanding Bodoland and Kamtapur, the BJP has called for President’s rule in the state citing the apparent lack of governance in these times of “chaos”.

Gogoi, in an apparent bid to control the Telangana fallout, said today, “Violence will not solve any problems; it will, rather, compound matters. All problems can be resolved amicably only through non-violent, democratic and peaceful means. The doors for negotiations are always open for those who abjure violence.”

He said the government would not tolerate violent protests. “No one can be allowed to take the law into own hands,” he warned.

The Hill State Democratic Party (HSDP) welcomed Gogoi’s initiative, with its general secretary, Kanjang Terang, saying, “We are ready to sit with Gogoi to discuss the statehood issue.”

On the other hand, a 32-member team comprising 17 members of the Karbi Anglong council, nine of their Dima Hasao counterparts, five MLAs from the two hill districts and Diphu Lok Sabha member Birensingh Engti are supposed to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi tomorrow to press for either an autonomous or a separate state.

While 30 of them are either already in the capital or are on the way, two members will start from Karbi Anglong tomorrow.

Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council chief executive member Jayram Engleng, who reached New Delhi yesterday, will jointly lead the team with his Dima Hasao counterpart Debojit Thaosen. KAAC chairman Dhansingh Kro was to lead the team but had to cancel the trip at the eleventh hour because he fell ill.

Engleng told The Telegraph from New Delhi today that there was no “administrative problem” in submitting the two proposals (for autonomous or separate state), as resolutions supporting both had already been passed in the council.

While the council adopted the resolution for a separate state under Article 3 of the Constitution in 1981, the autonomous state resolution was adopted in 2006.

“The people of Karbi Anglong are more interested in an autonomous state within Assam. It is because most of us feel we are not socio-economically self-reliant enough to survive as an independent state. We have discussed this with our Dima Hasao counterparts, who, too, feel the same. But keeping the sentiments of all residents of the two districts, proposals for both options will be placed before the UPA chairperson and the Prime Minister,” Engleng said.

Supporters of the statehood movement in Karbi Anglong today torched six government offices, including a khadi and village industries department office and a forest beat office, in Diphu and in Hamren sub-division.

The village industries office in Diphu was torched by a group of more than 20 youths around 9.30 this morning after curfew was relaxed for three hours from 8am. Security forces reached the spot only after most of the documents in the office were destroyed in the fire. No one was, however, arrested.

Karbi Anglong superintendent of police M.J. Mahanta said the situation had improved in the past 12 hours and very soon, curfew would be relaxed during the day.

“During the past five days, altogether 60 buildings were damaged in different parts of the district,” a Karbi Anglong administration source said.

The rebel outfit, Karbi People’s Liberation Tigers (KPLT), called a 1,100-hour strike in the district from 8am tomorrow in support of the statehood demand.

The outfit also asked Engti to raise the issue in Parliament in the ensuing monsoon session.

A spate of strikes and blockades has also thrown life out of gear in lower Assam.

The Biswajit Roy faction of the All Assam Koch Rajbongshi Students’ Union (AKRSU) began a 100-hour fast in the Hindi High School ground at Bhakeribhita in Bongaigaon district today, while the Kamtapuri Association started its 100-hour national highway blockade from 6am.

As for the response, though most markets remained closed, it was mostly because it was a Sunday. Traffic along the roads in lower Assam districts was, however, sparse.

AKRSU’s Hitesh Barman faction has also called a 36-hour Kamtapur strike from tomorrow morning in support of the demand for a Kamtapur state.

BJP national vice-president and Guwahati MP Bijoya Chakraborty today demanded imposition of President’s rule in Assam in the light of the deteriorating law and order situation following intensification of statehood movements in the state.

She said the state government had failed miserably in controlling the situation despite knowing that the Centre’s nod to Telangana would create problems in the state.

“Despite knowing it well that the Telangana decision will revive similar statehood demands in the state, the government did not prepare for violent protests,” she said in Guwahati.

“With so many government and private properties being burnt down, railway tracks being damaged and state being in chaos, there is no semblance of a government. We, therefore, demand imposition of President’s rule in the state,” she said.