Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said that Nagaon-like incident — wherein a police station was torched by a mob after death of a person allegedly in police custody — is unlikely to be repeated in future as his government has taken stern action in the case.
After preliminary investigation in the Saturday’s incident in central Assam’s Nagaon district hinted at involvement of some migrants who had allegedly encroached on government land, at least five houses were demolished by the district authorities on Sunday.
Action against encroachment by migrants, who are in majority in many districts of the state, will continue, Sarma said while speaking at the ‘Panchjanya Media Conclave’, organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mouthpiece on Sunday.
“We (Indians) are in minority in several districts of Assam while migrants are in majority. In one such area, a mob burnt down a police station. We have taken action that was needed…I don’t think these people will dare to do such a thing in the future,” Sarma said.
The Assam government has cleared close to 5,000-6,000 hectare from encroachment while “lakhs of hectares are yet to be reclaimed”, he said, adding that 12 districts have a large migrant population and his government’s efforts are on to stop further encroachment.
{{/usCountry}}The Assam government has cleared close to 5,000-6,000 hectare from encroachment while “lakhs of hectares are yet to be reclaimed”, he said, adding that 12 districts have a large migrant population and his government’s efforts are on to stop further encroachment.
{{/usCountry}}The event was attended by chief ministers of some of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Joining the event virtually, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath highlighted measures taken by his government against encroachment and to improve law-and-order situation in the state. Ever since the BJP has come to power in Uttar Pradesh, there has been no incident of communal riots, Adityanath said.
“There were 700 big riots in the state between 2012 and 2017. Earlier, there used to be curfew in cities. In the past five years, there have been no riots,” he claimed.
While there were reports of violence on Ram Navami in other states, no such incident happened in Uttar Pradesh, he further said. Adityanath also highlighted his government’s initiative to remove loudspeakers from religious places. Loudspeakers at religious places had become a major political issue that rocked several states recently.
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami spoke about the special drives being taken by his government to clear encroachment and identify migrants besides efforts being made to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
“We will be forming a committee on Uniform Civil Code. It will have legal experts and stakeholders…We will implement the Uniform Civil Code for which we are making preparations and we want other states to follow suit,” said Dhami.
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jairam Thakur used the platform to dismiss the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a possible contender in the upcoming assembly elections in the hilly state.
“I feel that such parties (AAP) don’t have a long (political) future. They don’t have any ideological base. They try to attract people’s attention by being in the news, but this will not last long,” Thakur said. “They have been successful in Delhi and Punjab, but the political situation in these states is different from Himachal Pradesh…They had to dissolve the state unit. For the past one-and-a-half months, they have not been able to find a state unit chief.”
Elections to the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly are scheduled for later this year.
When asked about his government’s announcement to provide 125 units of free electricity to state’s residents, Thakur said the move was not to counter any political party. “We are a power surplus state and we have taken this decision to provide benefit to the poor people. This will benefit over 1.2 million families,” he said.
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant and his Manipur counterpart Biren Singh spoke about the various initiatives and welfare measures taken by their respective BJP-led governments.