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North East: Assam : Centre in no hurry for talks with surrendered ULFA lead¬ers |
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A day after New Delhi asked him to take it easy on the ULFA peace process, a euphoric Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on July 25 announced that more “ULFA leaders and cadres” were keen to join the pro-talks group.
The Centre conveyed its stand after reviewing the security scenario in Assam with senior state government officials in New Delhi on July 24 and made it clear that it was in no hurry to initiate a dialogue with the two companies of the 28 battalion.
But while the Chief Minister was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a large assembly at Kalain village in Cachar on July 25, the first signs of differences between the government and the pro-talks group appeared, with a top ULFA leader dismiss¬ing Gogoi’s claims that the Alpha and Charlie companies have started depositing arms.
“There is no question of depositing arms and the government knows it very well,” Jiten Dutta, commander of the two companies, told newsmen over phone. “We have kept our arms at the designat¬ed camps and only a few boys have been issued small arms for security reasons.”
Dutta said it was one of the terms placed by the group to the government that the arms would not be deposited under any circumstances. “We have not surrendered. We have come overground on our own to begin the peace process.”
The Chief Minister had claimed a day before that the group has so far deposited about 50 arms and claimed that the peace process was on.
Home department sources refused to comment on Dutta’s state¬ment. However, the sources said after having done all the hard work in convincing the two companies to come for talks, the state government was unlikely to slow down and let go of the initia¬tive.
At the news conference, Gogoi added that his government was getting feelers from a large number of rebels.
The Chief Minister said “a substantial number of leaders and cadres of ULFA are now ready to throw in the towel. They have given us enough hints that they would be willing to start nego¬tiations within the ambit of the Indian Constitution” to bring the curtains down on the 27-year-old insurgency in the state.
Gogoi’s enthusiasm stems from the fact that at least four top-ranked leaders of the outfit’s most deadly unit - the 28 battalion - have expressed their wish to come for a dialogue. They include Mrinal Hazarika, Jiten Dutta, Joon Bhuyan and more recently Prabal Neog.
Centre clears Rs. 1000 cr. thermal plant
On the development front, the Union Government last week cleared a Rs 1,000-crore power project in Cachar district to mitigate the severe power crisis in southern Assam. The 250MW thermal power plant will be set up in two phases of 125MW each.
This was stated by Union Heavy Industries Minister Sontosh Mohan Dev at a rally at Kalian in Cachar district on July 26. He said the people of the district would receive uninterrupted power supply once the plant goes on stream.
At present, Cachar has a natural gas-based thermal power generation facility that was set up at Banskandi in the late nineties by the Delhi-based company, DLF Power. It has the capac¬ity to produce only 15.5MW of power.
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