Guwahati, Sept. 30: The Tarun Gogoi government is paying the price for the erstwhile Hiteswar Saikia-led Co-ngress ministry’s “largesse”.
Several banks have moved the debt recovery tribunal and civil courts for recovery of nearly Rs 200 crore that had been loaned to over 3,000 surrendered militants between 1992 and 1995. The Saikia government was the guarantor for these loans.
Minister of state for finance Nilamoni Sen Deka told The Telegraph today that Dispur had urged the department of banking, which is under the Union finance ministry, to restrain banks from filing loan-recovery cases. “The state government is committed to fulfilling its role as guarantor, but it does not have the resources to pay up immediately,” he said.
With most surrendered militants yet to return the loans they had been granted, banks have begun knocking on Dispur’s door. In June, the Reserve Bank of India asked these banks to recover their dues from the security amount deposited by the state government.
Deka said the State Bank of India had been given the responsibility of co-ordinating between the state government and member banks.
Between 1992 and 1995, as many as 4,968 activists of the outlawed Ulfa and several hundred from the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) and the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) laid down arms before the Saikia-led Congress government. Soon after their surrender, 3,105 of these former militants were given loans of Rs 2 lakh each under a rehabilitation package called the “100 per cent special margin money scheme”.
The loans were meant to be working capital for businesses, but most of the surrendered rebels used the money to buy luxury cars. Worse still, they conveniently forgot that the money had to be returned to the banks over a certain period.
Later, when the AGP-led alliance was in power in Assam, the Union home ministry unveiled a common surrender-cum-rehabilitation scheme for the northeastern states. Under the scheme, militants who had surrendered after April 1, 1998, were declared eligible for special financial assistance, including a monthly stipend for a year and soft loans. In addition to this, a reward was announced for depositing arms and explosives.
Over 2,000 Ulfa and NDFB militants surrendered during the period when Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was chief minister.
