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Tag: Himanta Biswa Sarma

  • Central funds for various schemes not fully utilised due to Assam officials’ apathy: Himanta Biswa Sarma

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that central government funds for various schemes were not fully utilised on many occasions due to the “apathy of officials” of the state.

    Handing over job letters to 546 new appointees, Sarma appealed to them to bring a new work culture to the government machinery and said that the schemes have suffered in Assam due to the reluctance of employees to work hard.

    “On many occasions in the past, funds received from the central government for implementation of development schemes could not be fully utilised for the apathy of officials engaged in the works here,” he said in a statement.

    Sarma handed over appointment letters to 218 assistant engineers in Panchayat and Rural Development Department (P&RD), 155 technical officers in Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and 173 junior administrative assistants (JAAs) in General Administration Department.

    As P&RD is a very crucial department, which is responsible for implementing development schemes at the grassroots, the newly appointed assistant engineers will be required to dedicatedly engage themselves in the same, he said.

    “Assam stood at the last position in the country in implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission though there was no dearth of funds. Our government is striving hard to provide targeted 62 lakh piped water connections in Assam by next year and 12 lakh households have already been provided with it.

    “The newly recruited technical officers of PHED will be engaged in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission to expedite the activities,” the chief minister said.

    Noting that Janata Bhavan (state secretariat) is the nerve centre of the state administration, he hoped that the newly appointed JAAs will augment its functioning.

    Sarma said that all pending files in Janata Bhavan will be cleared from February 1 and all employees have to work hard for that.

    He warned that corruption and negligence in duty will not be tolerated and timely service delivery must be ensured to the public.

    The chief minister said that from next year, engineers will be recruited through one examination a year and they will be posted across various departments as per their preferences.

    He said that the state government is steadfast in its commitment to giving one lakh jobs to the youths by May and is taking all necessary steps in this regard.

  • Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma chairs 18-hour long marathon security meet

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma chaired an 18-hour long security meeting where the law and order situation across districts besides various issues relating to policing were discussed.

    “First Day of SPs Conference, started at 10.30 am yesterday, has ended just now, at 4 am. This 18 hour-long marathon was intense, with detailed presentations by SPs/Addl SPs,” Sarma tweeted.

    He also wrote: “We stand committed to provide a technologically-advanced, citizen-friendly police force to our people.”

    Later on Tuesday evening, he told journalists he had wanted to know the status of the cases registered over the past eight months since his government was installed.

    He said he and the senior police officials also discussed the problems of the personnel. He said the state government would spend Rs 2,500 crore this year to build housing infrastructure for the cops.

    There are 11,000 vacant posts in the police department and he instructed it to set a goal of appointing 16,000 personnel. Sarma said during the conference, he had laid thrust on the optimal use of technology among others. The personnel had a detailed discussion on cyber crime.

    On the government’s war against drugs, he instructed the top police officers to take it to a “deciding stage”.

    “Organised crime nexus has to be stopped. We also have to protect the national assets,” he said.

    Reiterating his statement on “invisible policing”, Sarma said Assam Police are one of the most tech-driven police forces of the country and invisible policing starts with proper technology. He said the state has enough resources for invisible policing.

    He also said that the number of personal security officers (PSOs), attached to elected representatives and selected individuals, would be curtailed by 50%. The state has 4,800 PSOs.

    “I will cut back my security as well. I had 22 vehicles and I decided that there would be 7-8 vehicles when I am in Guwahati,” Sarma said.

    People will get good news when the imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Assam comes for a review by February-end, he said, indicating the Army personnel have withdrawn from most parts of the state as insurgency has waned.

    The CM exuded confidence on the settlement of Assam’s border disputes with Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

    “I am very hopeful about settlement with the two states within this year. However, before reaching any decision, the state government will talk to various organisations and political parties,” he said.

    He said the border talks with Mizoram started recently while the dispute with Nagaland was pending in the Supreme Court.

    Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Tuesday attended the conference, held at Duliajan, and interacted with the SPs. 

  • Assam CM to reduce security entourage by 50 percent, PSOs of politicians to be cut drastically

    By IANS

    GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday that his security entourage would be reduced by 50 per cent and the personal security officers (PSOs) of many politicians, officials and others would also be reduced by half to minimise government expenditure.

    The Chief Minister said that over 4,240 PSOs are now being posted with the politicians, in-service and retired officials, businessmen, surrendered militants, tea estate owners and others.

    According to Sarma, who also holds the home portfolio, of the 4,240 PSOs, 2,526 PSOs are deployed with the politicians of different parties, 854 with in-service and retired civil officials and 546 with judicial officers.

    “We have formed a security review committee to examine the necessity of PSOs for different persons. We want to reduce the number of PSOs by half. Except those people holding constitutional posts, PSOs for others would be reduced drastically,” the Chief Minister told the media after the New Year’s first Cabinet meeting.

    Noting that the Assam government has been spending around Rs 400 crore every year to provide PSOs to the politicians, officials and others, Sarma said that currently there are around 22 vehicles in his security entourage which would be reduced by seven to eight soon.

    “PSOs should not be the status symbol… It will be based on the necessity of the person concerned,” he said.

    Sarma had recently courted a controversy by saying that PSOs are a “Congress culture”.

    Slamming the Chief Minister over his “the PSO system is a Congress culture” remark, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee President Bhupen Kumar Borah and Congress’ Rajya Sabha member Ripun Bora had asked the Chief Minister to surrender his huge security cover.

    “Sarma groomed himself in the Congress for many, many years, built his entire political career, and then switched over to the BJP and became the CM. Now he has become allergic to the Congress culture,” Bora had told a television channel.

    Sarma had earlier urged BJP leaders and party functionaries to give up their PSOs.

    “There is no need for PSOs. We do not have any threat to life as we have done nothing wrong,” the Chief Minister had said at a function in Guwahati.

  • Lifting of AFSPA in Nagaland: Assam CM Himanta expects ‘positive developments’ in 45 days

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said there would be some positive developments on the demand for the withdrawal of Armed Forces (Special Forces) Act (AFSPA) from Nagaland in the next 45 days.

    “The Centre has already constituted a committee. We are going to see certain positive developments in the next 45 days,” Sarma told journalists in Guwahati.

    “The approach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah is very positive. The formation of the committee with a clear deadline of 45 days regarding partial or full withdrawal of AFSPA from Nagaland is a very important step,” the Assam CM, who is privy to the developments, said.

    He was optimistic the initiative would help build confidence and that would, in turn, help address other issues.

    His statements come amidst the fraying of tempers among various tribal organisations in Nagaland after the imposition of AFSPA in the state was extended by six months from December 30.

    The organisations viewed the Centre’s decision as “another attempt to rub salt to the wounds caused by the botched Army operation at Oting in Mon on December 4”.

    Talking about AFSPA in Assam, Sarma disclosed that the state would finally see some rationalisation during the year.

    “The Army has been virtually withdrawn from Assam except in five to six districts. The Assam government will take some pragmatic decisions in consultations with the state’s Home department when AFSPA comes for review (ahead of extension of Disturbed Area status),” Sarma said.

    On the insurgency situation in the state, he said tribal insurgency had come to an end. He credited the various civil societies with the return of peace to the state.

    “The restoration of peace in Assam is the result of the hard work of civil societies. The tribals are determined to not allow anyone to indulge in militancy. When the civil societies are so firmly with you, I don’t see the eruption of tribal insurgency unless we do some gross injustice to the tribals,” Sarma said.

    He said the stumbling block in bringing the Paresh Baruah faction of United Liberation Front of Assam or ULFA to the talks table was the rebel group’s Assam sovereignty demand.

    “But given my personal interactions with people who are directly or indirectly in touch with Paresh Baruah, it is clear that he also wants a negotiated settlement like state and central governments. We are working towards creating a new position where both parties feel it is not very difficult to talk,” Sarma said.

    On the interstate boundary disputes, he said the spirit of Northeast gets finished when the states fight among themselves. He was confident the disputes could be partially resolved within this year.

  • Congress accuses Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, family of grabbing land meant for landless

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday accused Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his family of “grabbing” 18 acres of land meant for the landless, and demanded his immediate dismissal along with a Supreme Court monitored probe by a special investigative team.

    Addressing a joint press conference, Congress leaders Jitendra Singh, Gaurav Gogoi and Gourav Vallabh alleged that Sarma misused his official position to illegally transfer government land for landless people in favour of RBS Realtors from 2006 to 2009, when he was a powerful minister in the then Congress government.

    The Congress leaders were accompanied by party MPs Ripun Bora and Abdul Khaleque, who alleged that the chief minister was aiding the land mafia in usurping the land for the landless.

    They said they would raise the matter in parliament as well as on the streets.

    There was no comment from Sarma or his family, and neither from the BJP over the allegations.

    Vallabh and Singh alleged that the Assam chief minister, on one hand is showing high-handedness by evicting poor and deprived families on the grounds that no one has the right to illegally take over government land, but has himself handed over such land worth crores to his family members.

    They said as per independent investigations, real estate company RBS Realtors, co-founded by Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, is allegedly occupying around 18 acres of government land intended for landless individuals and institutions.

    “We demand that Sarma, who along with his family, is involved in usurping land for the landless people, should be immediately sacked from his position,” Vallabh told reporters.

    “A sitting chief minister, whose family is directly involved in land grabbing, has no right to remain in power.

    He must be immediately sacked from his position,” he said, adding that he hopes Prime Minister Narendra Modi will sack such a “land mafia chief minister”.

    The Congress leader added that the “EC/I-T/CBI/FSIO are expected to investigate all such friends who have no right to constitutionally and morally hold the positions they are occupying”.

    Jitendra Singh, who is AICC in-charge for Assam, said the Congress hoped Modi who has said that he would not allow anyone to indulge in corrupt practices, will carry out an independent investigation into the alleged land deals and cancel the same.

    “We want that the prime minister should conduct a probe by an SIT under the monitoring of a sitting Supreme Court judge,” he said.

    Singh further alleged that one has seen that probe agencies like Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Income Tax (IT) department have acted like BJP functionaries by initiating action against political opponents of the saffron party, and should now investigate people who are corrupt in the BJP too.

    Taking a dig at the ruling party, Gogoi asked what “washing machine does the BJP have that when it takes leaders from other parties who are facing corruption charges, turn clean after they join the BJP?” He alleged that Sarma was facing corruption probes against him in Louis Berger and Sharda scams before joining the BJP, but turned “clean” after joining the saffron party.

    Gogoi said the Congress has four demands for the Modi government — an SIT be constituted immediately under the supervision of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court to investigate the matter and the SIT must carry out its investigation in a time-bound manner”.

    He said the ED, CBI, IT, Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and all other investigative agencies must be asked to file a complaint and initiate an investigation of all such similar unlawful land transfers in the state of Assam.

    Giving more details, the party leaders alleged that RBS Realtors Private Limited acquired most of the 18 acres in two stages, first in 2006-2007 and then in 2009.

    “Individuals that are landless and needy are granted ceiling surplus land by the Assam government and are prohibited from selling that land for a 10-year period, but in 2009, a total of 11 bigha three katha and four lessa (3,01,674 square feet or 6.92 acres) of ceiling surplus land in Bongora intended for and allotted to supposedly needy individuals by the government of Assam, was bought by the company, violating the 10-year lock-in period,” they said.

    The Congress demanded that all unlawful land transfers to the aforementioned realtors must be immediately cancelled and provisions made to provide alternative land to the landless and needy people whose land was unscrupulously taken away.

  • Construction of 8.25-km-long Jorhat-Majuli bridge over Brahmaputra begins

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday launched the construction works of the 8.25-km-long bridge over Brahmaputra, connecting the world’s largest river island Majuli with Jorhat, to be built at a cost of over Rs 925 crore.

    The project will be executed by UP State Bridge Construction Corporation Ltd, Lucknow, and the targeted period for completion of the project is four years, an official statement from the Chief Minister’s Office said.

    Sarma launched the construction works at Majuli, where he also announced that the Assam government will build a new bridge connecting Majuli with Lakhimpur on the northern side of the island at an estimated cost of Rs 750 crore, which will be spent from its own resources.

    For the construction of the Majuli-Jorhat bridge, including immediate approaches over Brahmaputra on NH-715K at Dakshinpat, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has sanctioned Rs 925.47 crore, the statement said.

    Speaking at the occasion, Sarma said, “Today is a historic day for the people of Majuli. The launch of construction of Majuli-Jorhat Bridge is a milestone event and this will give renewed momentum to the development journey of the district.

    “This bridge was a longstanding demand of the people of Majuli. Once construction of this bridge is completed, it will give a paradigm shift to connectivity between Jorhat and Majuli besides leading to rapid development in the island district.”

    He said that the state government has already constituted a cabinet committee to regularly monitor the progress of the project and aim to inaugurate the bridge by November 2025.

    “Around Rs 200 crore will be spent by the state government from for this bridge,” he added. The chief minister also inaugurated officers’ quarters and grade-III quarters under the Integrated Office cum Residential Building project at Majuli.

    Under this project, steps are taken for the construction of integrated DC office, site development and quarters with an outlay of Rs 50 crore.

    During his visit to the district, Sarma also interacted with the members of Majuli District Journalists’ Association and Majuli district All Assam Press Correspondents’ Union and took stock of the issues relating to the welfare of journalists.

    He assured them that the state government will take the necessary steps to address the issues raised by them.

  • Himanta holds meeting with Nagaland CM in Jorhat

    By PTI

    JORHAT: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Nagaland counterpart Neiphiu Rio held a meeting on Sunday and discussed several issues affecting the two Northeastern states.

    Though officials were tightlipped about the issues discussed in the closed-door meeting, sources said the duo spoke only on some “personal and political issues”.

    Sarma, who tweeted to inform about the meeting at Circuit House where the press was not allowed, also did not share details of the discussion that lasted for about 15 minutes only.

    It was followed by breakfast.

    “Glad to have met HCM Nagaland Sri @Neiphiu_Rio at Jorhat today, along with MP Sri @KamakhyaTasa. Discussed several issues of mutual interest in order to strengthen the age-old ties & bonhomie b/w (between) two states.

    “We strive towards building an ever united & stronger #NorthEast,” Sarma tweeted.

    An official statement from the Assam Chief Minister’s Public Relations Cell gave details of his other programmes in Jorhat district, but was silent about the particulars of the meeting between Sarma and Rio.

    “Earlier in the morning, the Chief Minister (Sarma) held a meeting with his Nagaland counterpart Neiphiu Rio at Jorhat Circuit House.

    Both the Chief Ministers discussed several issues of mutual interest,” it said.

    A senior official said that the meeting was closed-door and nobody from the government was present in it.

    “They discussed something personal, and some political issues. The inter-state border dispute between Assam and Nagaland was not discussed in it. No official issue was deliberated upon in the brief meeting,” he added.

    The meeting assumed significance after Sarma and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on November 16 for the first time ever jointly visited a disputed area between the two states and interacted with the local people.

    Addressing a joint press conference in Guwahati, Sarma and Sangma had said that Assam and Meghalaya are targeting to settle their longstanding inter-state border disputes at six locations out of 12 by the end of this year.

    Assam shares a 512.1-km border with Nagaland, with whom it has the longest border dispute that began since the creation of the state in 1963.

  • Assam, Meghalaya CMs to iron out boundary issues, uphold N-E spirit

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI:  Assam and Meghalaya have decided to resolve their vexed boundary disputes with a with a promise to safeguard the northeast spirit of friendship. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K Sangma visited the disputed Langpih on Tuesday and held deliberations with border residents. It is one of the worst affected areas of the disputes.

    Earlier, the two states had constituted three regional committees each which conducted joint visits to the disputed areas to try and understand the problem. Sarma said the panels have already taken the views of people and considered factors, including administrative contiguity.

    “The committees will submit their reports to the respective CMs soon. Once we receive the reports, we will sit down again and try to resolve the disputes in six areas of differences taken up in the first phase,” the Assam CM said.

    The dispute in these six areas is considered less complex. There are in total 12 areas of differences. “We have not included Langpih in the first phase as we believed we need to have an extensive dialogue with citizens of both states prior to making an attempt here,” Himanta said.

    “We have to work on ground zero and look at historical facts, constitutional issues and the entire dispute so that once we resolve it, there are no issues left to be resolved by our future generations. We are going to resolve the dispute with the northeast spirit of friendship,” the chief minister said. Conrad Sangma echoed his Assam counterpart by stating that both states were committed to resolve the issue “as a promise to the people”.

  • Assam CM Himanta calls out dance reality show for racism, host issues clarification

    Express News Service

    MUMBAI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has criticised the host of a television reality show for introducing a contestant from the state with words such as “momo” and “chowmein” and speaking “gibberish Chinese”.

    “It has come to my notice that a popular reality show host has used racist rhetoric against a young participant from Guwahati. This is shameful and totally unacceptable,” Sarma tweeted.

    Stating that racism has no place in the country, he insisted everyone should condemn it unequivocally.

    A clip of Colors TV’s “Dance Deewane 3” has gone viral, triggering outrage on social media. The contestant is a little girl, Gunjan Sinha, from Guwahati.

    Cricketer Riyan Parag, who too is a Guwahati lad, tweeted, “Assam is very much in India as any other state. No hate to this man but these comparisons need to stop. Jai Hind. Joi Axom,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site.

    Twitter was flooded with comments with the netizens slamming the presenter for his alleged “hate” and “racist” remarks.

    “It’s 2021, but the #racist Indians still practicing Chinese ‘momo’, ‘ching chong, #racism as a comic element on their national television with their #bollywood celebs applauding it,” a user C Thounaojam wrote.

    Meanwhile, Juyal asked his critics to watch the previous episodes of the show before judging him.

    “A clip has gone viral with people calling me racist. I want them to watch the entire show and then judge me. Judging me based on the small clip will not be good for my mental health and for those who know me,” Juyal, who introduces himself on Twitter as an actor, dancer, entertainer, nature lover, dreamer and creator, said.

    “We usually ask children about their hobbies when they come to participate. Gunjan said she can speak Chinese. We used to laugh but she kept speaking gibberish from thereon. In that particular episode, I had addressed her the way she does,” he said.

  • Muslim body cries foul as Assam evicts illegal settlers from reserve forest 

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The Assam government on Monday launched another drive to evict encroachers but a Muslim students’ body cried foul over the alleged “selective” actions of the administration.

    The authorities used elephants, excavators and tractors as it carried out a massive drive to clear encroachment at the Lumding Reserve Forest in Hojai district.

    Official sources said there was no resistance from the illegal settlers and the drive was peaceful. The authorities deployed around 1,000 security personnel, including four companies of the CRPF.

    During a similar drive at Darrang a few weeks ago, two persons had died in police firing when violence broke out.

    The drive at Lumding, being carried out at the direction of the Gauhati High Court, will continue till Tuesday. On September 30 this year, the court had directed the government to clear the encroachment in a phase-wise manner.

    The forest covers an area of 22,403 hectares. Around 1,410 hectares are under encroachment. Some 1,500 families, settled there, built a school, a church and a mosque. They were doing the cultivation of ginger and turmeric.

    Hojai Superintendent of Police Barun Purkayastha said many illegal settlers had moved away after being convinced by the district administration.

    “Many have vacated their houses while others are ready to leave. We are trying to convince some who are refusing to leave,” Purkayastha said.

    Some settlers had earlier moved the court, claiming that they have been living there for several decades.

    Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the encroachment was business-centric, indicating the land was sold to the settlers by the mafia. He said one Nazrul had brought people from Barpeta and Dhubri to destroy the forest.

    Meanwhile, the CPI-ML slammed the government for issuing notices to people settled on sandbars at Dhing in neighbouring Nagaon district. Claiming that the settlers relocated after being affected by the floods, the party said the ongoing eviction drives were aimed at harassing the Muslims.

    The All Assam Minorities Students’ Union (AAMSU) staged a sit-in demo at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Monday in protest against the eviction drives.

    In a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the students’ body alleged the Assam government, as a part of a political agenda, engaged itself in an “arbitrary, selective and illegal eviction” of genuine Indians without verifying historical reality, thereby forcing these people to live a “beastly nomadic life”.

    “A large section of the religious minority community settled on the banks of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, ushering an era of the agricultural revolution. However, they also face the wrath of the rivers as hundreds of hectares of land get submerged due to devastating floods and erosion leading to frequent migration,” the AAMSU said.

    It said the government was duty-bound to provide basic amenities of life and rehabilitate these displaced families.