Himanta Biswa Sarma's govt completes one year in Assam, lines up infra projects

'It has become a practice that we (BJP) fulfill the promises we make in our manifesto,' Amit Shah said

Home Minister Amit Shah laid foundation stones for five infrastructure projects worth Rs 1,300 cr in Assam on Tuesday to mark a year of Himanta Biswa Sarma's coalition government in the state.

Shah virtually laid foundations for the Guwahati Police Reserve (Rs 554.54 crore), integrated directorate (Rs 471.4 crore), a 5000-seat auditorium (Rs 186 crore), Guwahati Police Commissionerate (Rs 95 crore) and the integrated office of Kamrup Metro deputy commissioner in Guwahati.

"The projects are being taken up for fulfilling our dream to transform Assam among the top five developed states in the country. Despite the Covid crisis in the past year, we have tried to establish peace and usher in development in every sector. We have carried out a drive against illicit drugs and adopted zero-tolerance against crime and criminals. Nearly 2,000 militants have laid down arms, drugs worth Rs 550 crore seized and the crime rate has come down by 38 per cent since March last year. We have paid Rs 1,000 to bank accounts of poor and disadvantaged women, disposed of over eight lakh land-related matters under Mission Basundhara, waved the micro-credit loans and made rapid progress in fulfilling other promises we made before the 2021 elections," Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

BJP and its regional allies formed its first government in Assam in 2016 with Sarbananda Sonowal as CM. But Sonowal was replaced by Sarma after it retained power in 2021. Asom Gana Parishad and United People's Party Liberal are the two regional allies of the government now.

Shah, while appreciating the Sarma government, said that the government fulfilled its major promises by bringing in an act to stop cattle smuggling to Bangladesh, stopping rhino poaching by evicting the "infiltrators" from inside Kaziranga National Park and clearing Satra (Vaishnavite monastery) land from encroachers. "It has become a practice that we (BJP) fulfill the promises we make in our manifesto."

The Home Minister promised that a forensic university will be set up and a campus of the National Defence Academy will also come up in Assam. "We are taking steps to usher a White Revolution in Assam like the one in Gujarat, where 20 lakh women are doing milk and milk processing business worth Rs 60,000 crore annually. In Assam, we have set a target to involve 2.5 lakh farmers in the milk business. We have already succeeded in establishing peace and Assam now should become a center of business and investments. The youths in Assam must take an active role to achieve this target," Shah said.

Shah also lauded the agreement signed between Assam and Meghalaya to solve disputes in six out of 12 sites on the inter-state border. "We hope the disputes between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will also be resolved by August this year when our programmes to celebrate the 75th year of Independence conclude," he said.

Shah also unveiled Asom Barta, a monthly newsletter to be published by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Assam to highlight the state government's activities.

Former CM and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, another Union minister Rameswar Teli, Assam ministers, MLAs and many prominent persons attended the anniversary function.