Friday, April 30, 2010

Centre awaits Gogoi nod for ULFA talks

NEW DELHI, April 30 – In a significant disclosure, Union Home Secretary GK Pillai said Centre is waiting for a nod from Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to start dialogue with outlawed ULFA – with or without Paresh Barua.

The discussions are on between the State Government and Central Government. “We are waiting for a response from the Chief Minister of Assam. We would be initiating the talks with or without Paresh Barua,” said Pillai.

The Union Home Secretary, in a way confirmed what Tarun Gogoi had said last week, hinting that he was expecting some good news soon on the ULFA front. But then he had also reiterated that theGovernment would not talk on the demand for sovereignty.

Pillai’s response also confirms that Centre has endorsed the Chief Minister’s line on holding dialogue with ULFA. Reportedly, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was not keen on holding talks with any faction of the banned outfit and had stressed that Centre is interested to engage in talks with all the factions and in case of ULFA with Paresh Barua at the table.

With Assembly elections round the corner, the Tarun Gogoi Government is not about to take risks by waiting for Paresh Barua to turn up. He has opted to engage with the detained leaders, most of whom being members of the central committee of the outfit.

The Chief Minister over the last couple of months has been pressing the Central leadership, including Congress president, Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to allow him a free hand to tackle the situation, a senior Congress leader disclosed.

Earlier, presenting the monthly report card, the Union Home Secretary mentioned that implementation of Assam Accord was reviewed in a tripartite meeting.

He claimed that significant successes were achieved in 2009-2010 and a number of leaders of the underground outfits in North-east were arrested.

Top leaders of the DHD (J) were arrested on June 4 last year, and 416 cadres have laid down arms and are staying in designated camps. At least 412 cadres of the KLNLF laid down arms in February. Tripartitetalks with ANVC were held in Shillong. The SoO with ANVC was extended by three months up to June 30.

Prominent members of the top leadership of the ULFA were arrested in November-December, 2009 and further efforts to curb the activities of remnant cadres are underway.

In consultation with MHA, the Government of Mizoram has prepared an action plan for the repatriation of the first batch of about 12,000 Bru migrants to the State. They have been living in relief camps in Tripura for the last 12 years.

On the border fencing project on India-Bangladesh border, he said 210 km of fencing and 309 km of road works were completed in 2009-10 and 30 km of fencing and 25 km of road works in April, under phase II of the project. At least 401 km of fencing were replaced in 2009-10 and 5 km in April under phase III of the project.

Poles for floodlighting were erected on a stretch of 445 km in 2009-10 and 40 km during the month of April.

On the India-China border, 65.74 km of formation works and 13.70 km of surfacing works were completed in 2009-10 and 5.17 km of formation works and 3.3 km of surfacing works during April.

Source;http://www.assamtribune.com

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