Assam Elections 2021: Cong accuses BJP of destroying social fabric

Guwahati, Feb 01: The Congress on Saturday alleged that the ruling BJP has been working overtime to destroy the social fabric of Assam. The saffron party during the past five years of its rule in the state has continuously used communal divide as a tool to polarise the voters of the state, AICC spokesperson Gourav Vallabh told a press conference here.

"Assam is the land of Vaishnav saint Srimanta Sankardeva who propagated an inclusive society, but BJP has been working overtime to destroy the social fabric of Assam", he said. BJP has been boasting of close co-ordination between the central and the state governments over the development efforts in Assam but the reality is completely different, the Congress leader claimed.

Implying that there are two centers of power in the state government - chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Vallabh said

"The so called double-engine government has turned out to be a double-CM government with both moving in opposite directions with the development of Assam going nowhere". Continuing his attack, Vallabh said the BJP government has been completely indifferent towards building an infrastructure to withstand damage against natural disasters like floods and earthquakes.

"It took the BJP government at the Centre two years to come up with a shoddy North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS) that doesnt even propose an exclusive industrial policy for the North East," the Congress leader said.

According to the 227th report of the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, only 33 paise per capita was allocated for Assam in 2019-20 (Rs.1 crore in total) under the NEIDS and during 2019, Assam accounted for only 0.73 percent of the large industrial units established in the country, he pointed out.

Out of 36 states and Union Territories combined, Assam ranked 20th in the Business Reform Action Plan Results, 2019 indicating no concrete reforms initiated by the BJP government in the state, he alleged.

As per the CMIE data, the unemployment rate in Assam in December 2020 was 7.6 per cent, which is higher than the national unemployment rate of 6.5 per cent. Vallabh claimed that BJP government had promised nine new medical colleges and one high-tech 500 bed hospital in every district of Assam but the BJP government has deceived the people by holding foundation laying ceremonies just a month before the state elections.

The BJP government has also failed to deliver on its promise of setting up 30 Industrial Technology Institutes and an IIM and according to the recently released NITI Aayog''s India Innovation Index 2020 Assam is ranked 29th out of 27 states and nine UTs. "This speaks of the state''s overall pathetic performance in education especially in higher education and research - science and technology, industrial and employment sector," he added.