Guwahati: Members of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) burnt effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders in all districts and sub-divisions across Assam on Monday over the non implementation of the 1985 Assam Accord.
AASU activists set ablaze effigies of Singh, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi during the first day of the two-day protest announced by the students body.
Tapan Gogoi said the student body will intensify its agitation in the coming days if the government fails to take steps to deport and detect illegal migrants, the main agenda of the Assam Accord.
“It is 27 years since the accord was signed. But the centre and successive state government have done nothing to detect and deport the immigrants,” Gogoi said.
The AASU is also demanding sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border to prevent infiltration, besides update of the National Register of Citizens to ensure that names of foreigners are deleted from the voters’ list.
“The ethnic clashes in Kokrajhar and neighbouring districts are the direct result of illegal immigration from Bangladesh and change in demography in Assam.
If the government does not take any action, the situation would only deteriorate,” Gogoi said. (PTI)