An IRB jawan keeps vigil at Charaipung on Tuesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Dibrugarh, Aug. 25: Dispur has learnt a few lessons from the Charaipung skirmish, adopting a twin policy of being more stringent with goons and stepping up welfare projects along the border areas.

Sonari legislator Sarat Borkotoki announced a development package for the state’s border areas at a media conference today.

“It is true that we need to deal with miscreants and insurgents with a strong hand, but at the same we will also have to ensure that development does not take a back seat because of all this trouble,” Borkotoki, who is also the deputy chairman of State Planning Board, said.

“We have decided to build a model hospital, guesthouse, police outpost Charaipung for the welfare of our people. Moreover, Charaipung police station, which came under attack, will be completed as soon as possible,” Borkotoki said.

The Sonari legislator, who visited the border village in Sivasagar along with ministers Himanta Biswa Sarma and Rockybul Hussain yesterday said a Rs 6-lakh water supply scheme will be taken up at Charaipung very soon.

The state government will also take up major road repair and re-construction work at the border village, including the crucial Bimalapur Charaipung Longding Road.

A rural electrification project is also on the cards.

“We also will have a border outpost close to the Tiok river, which is the inter-state border,” the MLA said.

Borkotoki also said the government was seriously considering the problems faced by the small tea growers of the area for not being given land pattas.

“Small tea growers are working as our frontline defence in the sensitive zone. Therefore, it is our moral duty to take up whatever necessary steps we can for their,” Borkotoki said during the conference.

Though there were no fresh reports of violence in Charaipung in the past 24 hours, the AJYCP and AASU continued with their economic blockade on the routes to Tirap in Arunachal Pradesh.

A meeting convened by Sivasagar deputy commissioner N.M. Hussain at Sonari to discuss the possibility of lifting the blockade failed with both organisations refusing to relent till normality was restored along the border.

The state border areas development minister, Gautam Roy, will visit Charaipung tomorrow while the North East Students Organisation secretary general Gumjum Haider visited the border village today along with a delegation.

Save Guwahati Build Guwahati, a NGO, sent a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today, seeking the Centre’s intervention to solve Assam’s border conflicts with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya by initiating a dialogue.