Guwahati: Asom Gana Parishad, an ally of ruling BJP in Assam, on Thursday opposed the auctioning of 12 oilfields in the state and appealed to the Centre to reconsider the decision.
In a crucial and urgent meeting of its ‘Decision Making Committee’, AGP resolved to hold its old stand on not supporting privatisation of natural resources of the state.
Addressing the media after the meeting, AGP General Secretary Ramendra Narayan Kalita said: “Our stand is clear. We do not support the ongoing process to auction 12 oilfields of Assam. We appeal to the Centre to reconsider its decision to privatise the oil sector.” AGP will hold discussion with both state and central governments regarding the issue, he added.
Kalita said AGP favours to implement the Assam Accord in true spirit, and hence there should not be any attempt to hand over the state’s natural resources’ to private companies through auctioning or any other means.
“AGP has always been protesting any move to shift control of Assam’s resources’ to private companies and it will continue to do so in future. The control of Assam’s own resources should be with only Assam,” he added.
The AGP leader said the decision to hand over the 12 oilfields to private companies through auction is “anti-Assam” and the Centre should not take such decisions.
Congress had asked Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on June 28 to urge the Centre to reconsider the decision to hand over marginal and small oil fields already discovered by ONGC and OIL in the state.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Debabrata Saikia had said in a letter to the Chief Minister, “The Congress Legislature Party, on behalf of the people of Assam, demands that the state government must ask the Central government to reconsider the Centre’s controversial decision to hand over 12 state oilfields to private companies,”
Meanwhile, All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) today held protests in all district headquarters across the state in support of several demands, including withdrawing the forthcoming auction of 12 oilfields in the state and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister.
One of its major demands is to stop auction of all categories of oilfields of Assam and lease it to private companies for exploration. “The auctioning of such public sector oil fields to the private companies will hamper the means of production and control over resources of the state,” ABSU President Pramod Boro said. (PTI)
