OUR BUREAU
Guwahati/Silchar, June 17: With just a week left for the expiry of the unilateral ceasefire by the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the DHD, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting to take stock of the situation in the insurgency-hit North Cachar Hills district vis-a-vis “national projects” like the East West Corridor and the gauge conversion work between Lumding and Silchar.
The two projects have been severely affected by militant strikes, the last one leading to suspension of railway services.
A locomotive driver and 10 truckers were killed in two separate incidents on May 15.
Fearing further attacks, the Northeast Frontier Railway withdrew its services on the 185-km stretch between Lumding and Badarpur.
Singh’s meeting with chief minister Tarun Gogoi slated for Thursday evening has been officially convened to review the implementation of the two national projects at Singh’s Race Course Road residence.
Sources here, however, said the ceasefire offered by the outfit would come up for discussion along with immediate solutions to various problems, including the impediments blocking major schemes in south Assam that are to benefit the neighbouring states of Tripura and Mizoram.
Singh’s intervention to put the derailed national projects back on track assumes importance because he will be holding such a meeting with Gogoi for the first time, and that too, after at least three review meetings on the projects convened by the Prime Minister’s Office and the ministry of home affairs in the past month.
Among those who are expected to attend this meeting are railway minister Lalu Prasad and Union minister for heavy industries and MP from South Assam Sontosh Mohan Dev.
“The discussions will take stock of the overall situation After all, there cannot be progress if the DHD (J) continues its sporadic attacks crippling train services. There is also pressure from the railways and the surface transport ministry to put the projects on track,” a source said.
The outfit announced the ceasefire on March 25 for three months but picked up the gun again last month after the army allegedly gunned down a dozen of its members.
The outfit returned to the ceasefire mode on May 15 but Dispur is yet to respond to its truce overtures.
Neither has it made it clear if it wants the militants to lay down arms.
Gogoi will be leaving for Delhi tomorrow amid allegations by the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on railways, Basudev Acharya, who has blamed the Centre and the Assam government for failing to provide adequate security to workers of the gauge conversion project.
Acharya met the NF Railway top brass this afternoon to know about the projects’ progress.
The CPM Lok Sabha MP also met Gogoi in the evening.
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