Asom Govt not to give agri land for industrialisation: Tarun Gogoi

Guwahati, Jan 1 (UNI) Asom government will not provide agriculture land to set up big industrial units in the state and draw investments in small projects to create jobs for local people.

Talking to newsmen here, Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said, ''Unlike our counterpart in West Bengal, we will not invite big industry houses to the state to set up mega projects on agriculture land.'' He said the state can not afford to offer huge plots of land to set up big projects like the proposed small car projects of Tatas at Singur in Bengal.

''We do not have much land for mega projects. Of course, we are not against industrialisation and like to have as many small industrial units as possible on wasteland,'' he said.

He said his government had received investment proposals worth about Rs 6,000 crore for setting up industries in the state and the preference would be given to those proposals having potential to create jobs for local unemployed.

''We are planning to set up some more technical institutions in the state to make our human resources employable in those industries,'' Mr Gogoi said.

He said education would remain one of the top priorities for his government and announced that the girl students from VI standard and above, who are from the BPL families would be provided a bi-cycle by the state government in the coming year to help them attend their classes.

Over Rs 3.70 crore free textbooks would be distributed among the students of government, semi-government and tea garden schools in the state this year. The government would create 25,000 jobs in the government sector during the current fiscal as well as the year 2007-08.

UNI