GUWAHATI, July 27: The State Government is in favour of continuing with the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act. This was disclosed by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in response to a question by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in the State Assembly today. Gogoi said that though the implementation of different clauses of the Assam Accord was not specifically earmarked for the Central and State Governments, Clauses 5 and 6 are under the purview of both the Centre and the State. He also said that Clauses 7, 8 and 9 of the Accord are under the purview of the Centre, while, Clauses 10,11 and 12 are under the purview of the State Government. He said that the Ministry of Home Affairs is the nodal ministry for the implementation of the Accord.
The Chief Minister said that implementation of the Accord is a continuous process and the State Government is playing its part in implementating the clauses, which fall under the purview of the State. He told the House that a pilot project for providing multipurpose identity cards to Indian citizens started in Patharkandi revenue circle and the other clauses are also being implemented by the Centre.
Forest: The Minister of State for Forest, Pradyut Bordoloi, admitted that though on paper the total area under forest cover in the State is 19,124.62 square kilometres, a major part of this area is under encroachment. Replying to a question by Pani Ram Rabha (Cong), the Minister said that some of the reserve forest areas remained on paper only due to continuous encroachment over the years, which took a serious turn since the 1980s. He said that the Forest Department has taken up different schemes for increasing the forest cover and about a thousand joint forest management committees have been formed to involve the people living near the reserve forests in forest management work. The Forest Department has also taken up plantation programmes all over the State to increase the green cover, he added.
In reply to a question by Raju Sahu (Cong), the Forest Minister gave an account of the steps taken by the Government for development of the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park. He said that a five year plan has been taken up for development of the park and the schemes include providing vehicles, motor boats, weapons etc to the Forest personnel, construction of the roads inside the park, construction of high rise platforms to provide shelter to animals during high floods, etc. Steps have also been initiated for welfare activities in the villages in the fringe of the National Park.
ATC: Transport Minister, Anjan Dutta today announced that the State Government is trying to revitalise the gardens of the Assam Tea Corporation (ATC) by handing those over to private parties.
Replying to a question by Rameswar Teli (BJP) in the State Assembly, Dutta, who was replying to question on behalf of the Industries Department, said that though the Government invited tenders for handing over the gardens of the ATC to private parties, the offers were not acceptable. He said that the overall slump in the tea industry badly affected the ATC, which has 14 gardens and because of the poor financial position of the gardens, no private party has come forward to buy those on terms acceptable to the Government. He said that the Government is now trying to lease out the gardens.
In reply to a separate question by Pani Ram Rabha (Cong), the Minister said that Assam now has 10 sick public sector industries and efforts are on to reactivate the same. He said that the Ashok Paper Mill is yet to start production and the workers have not received their salaries since May last year.
Education: Urban Development Minister, Hem Prakash Narayan, replying on behalf of the Education Department, said that during his last visit to the State, the Union Human Resource Development Minister announced the Centre?s decision to set up an Indian Institute of Management in the north eastern region. While replying to a question by Jagadish Bhuyan (AGP), the Minister said that the Assam Government has initiated steps to ensure that the IIM is set up in the State and a proposal has been forwarded to the Centre in this regard.