By PTI
GUWAHATI: Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora has slammed the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government for the alleged slow pace of vaccination in the state and “jeopardising” age-old social harmony by bringing in a cattle preservation law.
Making an analysis of the 100 days performance of the BJP-led government in Assam, Bora also alleged that the inter-state border disputes have escalated during the new dispensation and it has gone back on the promise of waiving off the micro finance loan of women.
The Congress leader said in a statement that Sarma’s government has made tall claims about success in various fields but “practically there is nothing to show as achievements”.
Out of Assam’s 3.35 crore population, just 20 lakh were fully vaccinated till now while 1.28 crore people got just single dose and 1.07 crore people of the age of above 18 years did not get even a single dose of vaccine, which is very alarming, he said.
Bora claimed that there were 35 encounters between police and drugs peddlers in the first 100 days of the BJP government in the state, which is a serious threat to human rights and against a Supreme Court ruling. Even the chief minister has provoked the police to shoot the accused, he claimed.
The former president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee said the Cattle Preservation Bill 2021 will “jeopardise” the long-lasting peace and tranquility between the Hindu, Muslim and Christians in Assam.
“Under this Act selling of beef is banned within 5 km radius of any religious place. But Assam is such a state where almost all villages or areas, Hindus, Muslims and Christians have been living together since time immemorial. As such there will be not a single place where there will not be Hindu or Muslim within the 5 km radius of a temple or a ‘satra’ (Vaishnavite monastery), ‘namghar’ (a kind of Assamese temple),” he said.
Bora also termed as “gross failure” of the Sarma’s government in protecting Assam’s interest with regards to border disputes with the neighbouring states as six Assam Police personnel were killed and over 50 others injured by Mizoram Police in a border clash last month.
Repeated tension along the Assam-Mizoram, Assam-Nagaland and Assam-Meghalaya borders and lack of progress in the talks over boundary disputes cannot be termed as success, as claimed by the Assam chief minister, he said.
The Congress leader also said the BJP-led government has not yet fulfilled a party promise during the election campaign that the micro finance loan of the women borrowers will be waived off within one month of forming the government.