| GUWAHATI, March 23: In a riposte to the “Ten Sankalpas” of the BJP manifesto, the Opposition Congress here said that the saffron party’s promise to mitigate floods in Assam by dredging the river Brahmaputra was an “old promise”.
“What was the BJP doing in the last five years on the promise of dredging the river Brahmaputra? Dredging of the river Brahmaputra is an old poll promise of the BJP. So what is new about it?” the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee here questioned, issuing a statement on Tuesday. “To try to fill up the flood waters of the mighty Brahmaputra in ponds and reservoirs is outlandish. They should first visit Assam during floods, then make such ridiculous statements,” the APCC statement said. The Opposition further alleged that the Mission Sishu Unnayan “is nothing but a copy of the Sarba Shiksha Abhiyan of Congress and giving bicycles to students was started by the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government in Assam.” “The BJP had failed miserably to give the people of Assam a foolproof NRC. They had governments at the Centre and state. The administration was under them, yet they could not give a proper NRC to the people. Their sincerity in solving the illegal migrants issue is questionable,” it said. The Opposition took potshots at the BJP for promising 5 lakh jobs every year in 2016 and now scaling it down to one lakh jobs by March 2022. “So what does this prove? That it was nothing but a false promise. BJP only knows how to give false promises,” it alleged. The Congress alleged that the crimes against women in Assam were the highest in the whole country for three consecutive years of BJP rule, which is deplorable. “When women are not safe how can they be empowered?, it questioned. “On the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the BJP has gone absolutely silent. Why? We want to know. Their stand on CAA is ambiguous. In West Bengal, they say they want CAA, in Tamil Nadu they don’t want, and in Assam, they are silent,” the APCC statement alleged. The Opposition party condemned the statement of Union home minister Amit Shah that there were no protests in Assam in the past five years. “He (Shah) wants to simply obliterate the anti-CAA uprising in Assam. He wants to deny the existence of young boys like Sam Stafford and Dipanjol Das who lost their lives in police firing. What can be more unfortunate for the people of Assam than this? The APCC asserted that the Congress has one stand. “We oppose CAA and will leave no stone unturned to nullify it,” the statement said.
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