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Army back-up to save twin Assam projects |
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Assam Governor Ajai Singh turned to the Chief of the Army’s Eastern Command, Lt Gen. V.K. Singh, for a foolproof security plan for the railway and highway projects in the militant-infested North Cachar Hills.
Militants have been repeatedly disrupting the two projects by targeting officials and workers. Three officials of a private construction company working on the North Cachar Hills stretch of the East-West corridor were abducted for ransom along with a driver and a police constable only a week ago.
Lt Gen. (retd) Ajai Singh made the request when the Eastern Command Chief called on him along with Lt Gen. B.S. Jaswal, the General-Officer-Commanding of the 4 Corps, at Raj Bhavan.
The 4 Corps leads counter-insurgency operations everywhere in Assam except the North Cachar Hills and neighbouring Karbi Anglong, which are under the jurisdiction of the 3 Corps, based in Nagaland.
The police believe law and order in the hilly districts bordering Nagaland and Manipur has deteriorated because the 3 Corps is not doing enough to curb the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the Dima Halam Daogah, which has links with the NSCN (Isak-Muivah).
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was the first to suggest that North Cachar Hills be brought under the purview of the 4 Corps, headquartered in Tezpur.
Work on the railway gauge conversion and highway projects have suffered since 2006, when the DHD (J) shot dead 11 members of a railway team not far from where the three officials of Valecha Engineering were abducted on March 12.
Workers of all five companies building the East-West corridor refused to report for duty after the abductions. Valecha Engineering has been contracted to build a 15-km stretch of highway that runs through a hilly, forested area. The nearest town is Lumding in Nagaon district, 27km away.
Apart from Valecha Engineering, the Silchar-Lumding stretch is being built by Punj Lloyd, Gammon India, Hindustan Construction Co and Continental Engineering. The last two companies have bagged contracts for the major portion of the highway.
Almost all the companies working in the North Cachar Hills have their base camps in Lumding since it is relatively safer there.
The Governor has always taken interest in the railway and highway projects in the North Cachar Hills. A source in Raj Bhavan said that apart from discussing general law and order with the Eastern Command chief, Gen. (Retd) Singh spoke about the Army playing a bigger role in securing national projects.
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