Centre asks Assam to restore peace: Patil

New Delhi, Dec 3: With opposition members, including the Left, accusing the Centre of ignoring the Assam Government's alleged collusion with locals on the protesting tribals in Guwahati on November 24, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said, the Centre had asked the State Government to be vigilant against any possible re-eruption of violence and restore peace.

Speaking during the Call Attention on the violence in the Lok House, the agitated members charged the Assam Government of suppressing the number of the dead and deliberately maintaining that only one person was killed, while the figure of injured could not be less than twenty.

They also asserted that 40 to 60 tribal rallyists are still missing and probably they were no more. But, the State Government was hiding this fact, they added.

Mr S K Bwiswmuthiary (IND), Mr Kiren Rijiju (BJP), Mr Sarbananda Sonowal and Dr Arun Kumar Samra both AGP, charged the Centre of ignoring the All Advasi Students Association of Assam demand for ST status and refraining to take strict action against the State Government.

The incident in which a girl was striped naked and paraded in Guwahati, had shaken the entire country and this very fact they are trying to suppress by giving compensation to the victim, they said.

Meanwhile, Kririp Chalila (Cong) said, the violence would have assumed large scale proportions if the local people did not intervene to save the tribals. This assertion caused uproar in the House.

UNI