In what has come as serious embarrassment for Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, the home ministry team has found serious lapses in handling of the situation by the state administration in trouble-torn Western Assam.
Joint secretary home Mr Shambhu Singh, who is camping at Kokrajhar and visited Dhubri on Thursday told reporters, “Had Army been called at the beginning of violence, this human tragedy might have been averted.” Informing that situation was limping back to normalcy, Mr Singh however clarified that it was simply an error of judgment, as administration could not anticipate the situation spilling over to this scale.
Mr Singh who instructed the police to deal firmly with mob violence also asked state administration to register FIR against those involved in instigating the mob violence. Mr Singh said that biggest challenge for the administration is to rehabilitate over 1.5 lakh refugees and homeless to their respective villages.
He stressed the need of taking steps to enhance the confidence between the two communities. Informing that there was no shortage of security forces and Army has been deployed in most of the vulnerable and sensitive areas, Mr Singh informed that more security forces are on way.
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BJP slams govt, JD(U) says don’t politicise issue
age correspondent
new delhi, July 26
A day after BJP attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for being a “mute spectator” over the ethnic violence in Assam, BJP’S ally JD(U) cautioned that “every issue should not be politicised”.
“Political parties should not do politics on this, rather they should be taking steps which improve the situation there. Every issue should not be politicised. What is the gain from politicising every issue,” said JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav.
BJP had on Wednesday demanded an answer from the Prime Minister on the violence with party general secretary Ananth Kumar saying “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh represents Assam in Parliament. It is unfortunate that he has turned a mute spectator on the increasing violence in Assam and the grim flood situation there”.
Mr Yadav also found the response of the Congress government in Assam to the situation satisfactory.
“The state government’s response is okay,” he said when asked about it.
Meanwhile, he said that the government should take steps to normalise the situation and deal with the violence sternly.