GUWAHATI, July 16 ? The All Assam Students? Union (AASU) today demanded that Assam should be allowed to manage its resources like mineral oil and tea to mobilise the fund for solution of its flood problem. It also demanded that foreign flood experts should be engaged to study the State?s flood problem and to evolve a solution to the problem within a specified period. It warned that the people of Assam were not prepared to accept any Central Government attempt to equate the State?s flood problem with that of Bihar. Assam?s problem of flood is a unique one. It should be recognised as a national one and the Centre should come out immediately with a concrete policy statement for the purpose, specifying measures to solve it, the students? body said.
State?s rivers are the sources of the maximum amount of the country?s water resources, the students? body argued and demanded steps to turn these rivers into the powerhouses for accelerating economic growth of NE region. Talking to newspersons AASU advisor Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharyya also suggested here today that the State and Central Governments should take steps to facilitate involvement of international agencies this season in relief operations for the benefit of the State?s flood affected people. For, the AASU advisor said, the relief operations conducted by the Government were not able to touch majority of the affected people. Even, the areas touched by the Government relief operations are also not getting adequate amount of foodstuff. There is virtually no supply of baby food and the health care facilities provided to these people are also far from being adequate, he said.
He described the Central Government?s present efforts to mitigate the State?s flood havoc as casual. The excuse of the Central Government that shortage of resources had been standing on the way of its tackling Assam?s flood problem as a national one was not acceptable to the AASU any more, he said. If such a situation is in fact prevailing, he said that it would be wise then on the part of the Centre to entrust the State with the power to manage its resources like mineral oil and tea. The Centre is showing its keenness to exploit the mineral oil reserve of the State and for that purpose it is even engaging foreign experts. But the Centre is not showing that keenness in matters of tackling the State?s flood problem. Foreign experts should be engaged for tackling the problem even by floating global tenders if the situation so demands, he said.
Only piecemeal works to mitigate the havoc created by the floods for the people of the State will not serve the purpose. The Chief Minister and the political parties of the State should also change their attitude of approaching the Central Government with begging bowls in hand to bail the State?s people from the crisis created by the floods. Instead, he said, they should start demanding what is due to the State. The State has the legitimate claim over its resources. Management of these resources should be made a prerogative of the State, he said. Explaining, Bhattacharyya said that the State had been providing the country with 5.8 MT of crude oil annually, while the Central Government-controlled agencies were not coming up with any account of the natural gas reserve in the State. The international price of a cubic metre of natural gas as of today is Rs 2,200, he said.
But against the above backdrop, it is really shocking for the State?s people to learn that the State?s MPs are not allowed to raise the issue of flood in the Parliament. Nobody should expect that the State?s people would remain mute even after all these, said the AASU advisor.