AASU seeks Army on Bangla border

GUWAHATI, April 28: The All-Assam Students' Union today threatened to go for a statewide bandh on May 2 if the Centre did not deploy Army personnel along the Assam-Bangladesh border immediately to prevent infiltration. AASU general secretary Amiyo Kumar Bhuyan said here this morning that the Army personnel should also help in "pushing back" infiltrators who are already living in the state. Bhuyan said a memorandum had been sent today to President K.R. Narayanan with copies to the Prime Minister, the home minister and the defence minister. Terming the "goof-up" in the Mancachar sector as a failure of the Border Security Force, the student leader said the Army's deployment would help prevent recurrence of such a situation. "We had demanded 16 years ago, when the Assam Accord was signed, that the border should be sealed and Army personnel deployed," AASU president Prabin Boro said. He added that before the BSF was handed over the task of manning the Assam-Bangladesh border, the Assam Police Border Force had "done a far better job". Assam shares a 262-km border with Bangladesh, of which 92 km is riverine. The student leaders, including AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya, came down heavily on the Asom Gana Parishad-led government for not taking any "concrete steps" to solve the foreigners' problem. "The AGP has betrayed the people," Bhattacharyya said. Reiterating that the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act must go, he demanded that the clause in the Citizens Act - which grants voting rights to children of illegal migrants who came till 1986 - must also be scrapped. "Unless the Assam Accord is implemented within a specific time-frame, the problems of the state will continue," he added. The AASU leaders also asked the political parties to make their stand clear on the burning problems of the state like floods and erosion. "The flood problem must be declared a national problem," Bhuyan asserted. Regarding the education scenario, the AASU demanded that the educational institutions must be "freed" from the clutches of political leaders. "What business do politicians have in the managing committees of the educational institutions?," Bhuyan asked. "The task of managing schools and colleges should be given to learned men who know what they are doing", he added.