Asom govt hits out at AGP MP over AAI issue

Guwahati, May 1 (UNI) Reacting to Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) MP Sarbananda Sonowal's criticism of the Congress for its alleged failure in implementing the Asom accord, state minister Himanta Biswa Sharma today said the former should ''remember that the AGP had been unable to implement the accord despite securing two terms in office''.

Addressing a press meet here, Mr Sharma said Mr Sonowal should remember that he is accusing the Congress from an AGP platform.

''The same party, though a product of the Accord, failed miserably in its implementation,'' he added.

Mr Sonowal had recently said in Parliament that the Congress governments had failed to implement the various clauses of the historic Accord, signed in 1985.

Mr Sharma. a government spokesperson, said Mr Sonowal should remember that he was no longer a student leader but represented the AGP, which had failed to implement the Accord even after two terms in Dispur.

He claimed that the clauses of the Accord that had seen the light of day, be it the gas cracker project, IIT, central universities or the refinery at Numaligarh, had been implemented during the regime of the Congress, either in the state or at the Centre.

Mr Sharma, also a Cabinet minister, challenged the AGP MP to submit a white paper on what had been achieved during the AGP tenures with regard to Accord implementation.

He maintained that the fencing along the Indo-Bangla border, a priority clause of the Accord, had been implemented by the Congress much more successfully than by the AGP.

He pointed out that the 153 km border fencing done during the AGP rule in the first phase had to be undertaken as a third phase of fencing due to the low quality of work.

''The work done under the AGP tenure was of such low quality that we had to undertake it again in a new phase,'' he added.

Out of the sanctioned 53 km of border fencing of the total 77 km undertaken in the second phase by the present government, 36 km had been completed and the rest was nearing completion.

On the compilation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), another important clause of the Accord, Mr Sharma pointed out that it was the Congress, which took ''a one principle decision'' to go ahead with the NRC.

Process for the NRC compilation had already been initiated, while the AGP failed to even start the preliminary work, he added.

Slamming Mr Sonowal for creating a false impression of the state, Mr Sharma said he was projecting a wrong side to the outside world.

UNI