Guwahati: A central team of joint secretaries of various ministries on Wednesday visited relief camps in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD), while Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi held a meeting with prominent citizens to find a way for lasting peace in the riot-hit areas.
The Central team, which visited Dhubri relief camps on Tuesday, paid visits to camps in Kokrajhar in BTAD since Wednesday morning.
They reportedly interacted with the inmates and were apprised of the condition of the camps, including availability of relief materials and security aspects.
The Central team comprised Joint Secretaries Sambhu Singh of Ministry of Home Affairs- S S Mathur, Drinking water-K K Srivastava, Disaster Management- Ravi Mittal, Planning Commission- Dr R S Shukla, Health- Naveen Prakash, Food and Rajesh Bhusan, Rural Development.
They are scheduled to meet top government officials at Dispur on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the chief minister on Wednesday convened a meeting of prominent citizens here to discuss the current situation in BTAD and to find concrete ways and means to restore complete peace and harmony in the affected areas and to rehabilitate the displaced people.
Stating that the first priority of the government is to restore complete normalcy and to rehabilitate the affected people, Mr Gogoi asserted that only genuine Indian citizens would be rehabilitated.
The Chief Minister said that rumours spread like wildfire and sent alarm bells ringing among the students and those working outside the state to return home.
‘The exodus of people from the southern states was mainly due to rumour mongers at work. The technological advancements vis-a-vis cell phones and internet have had helped to spread misleading reports fast leading to the exodus, though there were no major incidents,’ he said.
The meeting in which several prominent citizens and members of the civil societies expressed their views unanimously adopted several important resolutions.
Expressing dismay over the destruction of houses and properties, rendering thousands homeless, the distinguished civil members showed concern over prevalence of illegal arms and appealed to the government to take urgent steps for their recovery.
The meeting emphatically observed that the incidents of recent violence were not communal in nature.
Expressing great concern at the exodus of the people of North Eastern States, the members urged upon the students and workers not to pay heed to rumours doing the rounds, which are clearly against national interest.
Meanwhile, as many as 8,186 people have left for their homes from relief camps in riot-hit districts in Assam. Altogether 7,498 people have left the camps in Kokrajhar district and 688 in Chirang district since Tuesday, officials said here on Wednesday.
However, riot victims living in temporary shelters in Dhubri and Bongaigaon districts are staying put, they said.
Currently there are 2,56,891 people living in 223 relief camps in the four districts, which were rocked by ethnic violence in which 78 people lost their lives, the officials said.
Dhubri has the highest number of 1,46,214 people living in 133 relief camps, followed by 57,715 victims in 53 relief camps in Kokrajhar. In Chirang there are 40,408 people in 23 camps, while in Bongaigaon 12,554 people are living in 14 camps.
The camp inmates included 2,15,794 Muslims, 40,992 Bodos and 105 belonging to other communities, officials said. As many as 4,85,921 people had taken shelter in 340 relief camps during July end and first week of August, when the ethnic violence was at its peak in the state.
Meanwhile, a PTI, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) on Wednesday rejected the allegation levelled by a human rights organisation claiming that its report on Assam violence was biased in favour of a particular community.
Claiming that NCM’s report on recent spate of violence in Assam was biased, Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding its review.
NCM had recently released its report on Assam violence where it had claimed that a particular community in the state was provided with firearms to target minorities.
It had also expressed its doubts that some of the militant organisations operating in the state were behind the recent massacre. The report was prepared under the supervision of Planning Commission members Sayeeda Hamid and NCM member K N Daruwala.
ACHR has also sent a copy of its complaint to the NCM, where it has alleged that it is advocating the case of one of the minority groups and has neglected others. (Agencies)