Opp demands Gogoi’s resignation

By Our Correspondent GUWAHATI, June 4 –

The demand for Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s resignation over the arrest of State Education Minister Ripun Bora has intensified, with most of the major political and non-political parties today flaying the Chief Minister for giving shelter to the ‘corrupt’ minister in his ministry for the last many years. While the Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association has called a 24-hour Assam bandh on June 9 demanding that Bora be stripped off the membership of the State Assembly, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today moved the Governor, Lt General (rtd) Ajai Singh, urging the latter to recommend to the President of India the dismissal of the Congress-led State Government. The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) too joined the bandwagon and went on to demand a CBI inquiry into all the public allegations brought against the other ‘tainted’ faces of the State politics including Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain, State Government spokesperson and Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Water Resources Minister Bharat Narah and Member of Parliament Mani Kumar SubbaThe Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Ripun Bora, while he was allegedly offering Rs 10 lakh to a CBI official in connection with the murder case of Daniel Topno, in which he was also an accused. Talking to mediapersons at the party office, AGP president Brindaban Goswami termed the arrest of Bora as a ‘black day’ in the political history of the State.“The Chief Minister has no other alternative but to resign from his post owing moral responsibility as it was the State Government, which was against handing over the Daniel Topno murder case to the CBI,” Goswami stated, alleging that the State Government also managed to influence the preliminary investigation initiated in this regard by the local police. The regional party would launch a stir across the State tomorrow. “The incident involving Bora is just a tip of the iceberg and there are a number of cases of similar nature in the Gogoi ministry. The entire Gogoi ministry is flooded with corrupt public representatives,” the AGP leader claimed. “In fact, the role of Gogoi in all these cases is also doubtful,” Goswami pointed out.AASU advisor Dr Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya, during another press conference, reiterated that the arrest of Bora has once again brought to the fore the deplorable status of the Education Department, as claimed by the AASU for the last few years.“The Chief Minister should have quit his post immediately after the arrest of his cabinet colleague,” he stated.“The Chief Minister knew that the Education Minister was guilty, which was why he was against handing over the case to the CBI. Gogoi must face the music for giving shelter to a corrupt minister,” Dr Bhattacharya reiterated. The students’ body urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi to take immediate and strict constitutional steps against the Government for sheltering the tainted minister.“The businessman, identified as Ramesh K Maheswari, who was also arrested along with the minister, is the one who got the contract for supplying benches and desks to the schools in the State under ‘Adarsha Vidyalaya’ scheme of the State Government. This has posed a question mark over the businessman’s credibility and made it clear that large scale anomalies have been taking place in the Education Department since Ripun Bora took over the charge,” Dr Bhattacharya stated.AASU general secretary Tapan Kr Gogoi also demanded action against the CID official, who gave, clean chit to the minister after his probe.Meanwhile, the State unit of Bharatiya Janata Party and the Nationalist Congress Party staged dharna against corruption of the Gogoi Ministry at their respective party offices.The Assam Youth Student Union also condemned the incident and demanded strict measures against the culprits.The Sadou Asom Janasanskritik Parishad, the All India Students’ Association and the CPI (ML) also demanded that Bora be stripped off his membership of the State Assembly.Our Tezpur Correspondent adds: With State Education Minister Ripun Bora on centrestage in the aftermath of the bribery bid of Rs 10 lakh to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over a murder case, several organisations including intellectuals of historic town of Tezpur and citizens of Tezpur township described the incident as a major setback to the dignity and culture of the people of Sonitpur district.Talking to this correspondent, Assam Pradesh Youth Congress general secretary Sujit Sarma expressed grave concern over the issue and said arrest of State Education Minister Ripun Bora on charges of the abortive bribery bid has besmeared the image of the Congress.Meanwhile several organisation such as AGP, AGP(P), AASU, AASA and others torched effigy of Ripun Bora of various places across the district.