From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: The Assam government has asserted that maoists elements have infiltrated the anti-dam agitation that the raging in the state and warned of “strongest” action against them. The government said it had definite intelligence inputs to believe so.
“A section of people subscribing to Maoist philosophy have infiltrated into the on-going anti-dam agitation and they are out to create a situation of anarchy and lawlessness by disrupting supplies and adding to the woes of the people.
The government cannot remain a silent spectator,” state power minister and a spokesman of the state government Pradyut Bordoloi said here on Thursday.
Bardoloi’s statement just echoed what the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had said on Thursday about involvement of Maoists and the anti-talk faction of the outlawed ULFA headed by Paresh Barua in the anti-dam movement in the state.
“Maoists, anti-talk faction of ULFA and other extremist groups are involved in the protest. Maoists are helping the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), which is spearheading the stir,” Gogoi had said.
Bordoloi said the Assam government was equally concerned about the riparian rights of the people of Assam and would do everything needed to protect the interests of the Assam districts located downstream of the 2000-MW Lower Subansiri hydel project that is being constructed by the NHPC.
“The Assam government is willing to talk to the anti-dam agitators, but not with those leaders who don’t know how to talk about elected representative of the people in public. We can talk only to decent people, not to those who hurl abuses on the chief minister and other ministers in the name of leading an agitation,” Bordoloi said referring to abuses hurled by one of the anti-dam movement leaders Akhil Gogoi, the secretary of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS).
Bordoloi flayed at Akhil Gogoi for calling the chief minister Tarun Gogoi an agent of the dam lobby. “There is nothing called ‘dam lobby’ as alleged by Akhil Gogoi. The Lower Subansiri project is being implemented by the NHPC, which is one of the largest PSUs in the country,” he said.
The KMSS have blocked National Highway 52 in Lakhimpur district for over 15 days now, resisting movement of machinery to the project site of Lower Subansiri hydel project at Gerukamukh in Dhemaji district.