Agencies
GUWAHATI, JULY 9
Five years ago, Gauhati High Court had declared bandhs and blockades illegal and directed the Assam government to take stern action against those calling bandhs. There has been no letup in the trend, with at least 15 bandhs and blockades in the last three weeks.In August 2012, the government declared bandhs illegal for a period of one month. The order was never renewed. The following year, the government drafted the Assam Prevention of Unconstitutional Bandh Bill 2013, with imprisonment up to two years and a fine of Rs 10,000 per day for those calling bandhs, one year imprisonment to those calling blockades, and compensation for damage caused to property. Nothing has progressed since.
Life was disrupted in Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Golaghat and Sivasagar districts on Tuesday following a 12-hour bandh called by several organisations demanding ST status for six communities. Last week, a woman who was on her way to a hospital was assaulted in Nagaon district by a group of people who had called a bandh.
“The court order has hardly brought any relief to people in Assam because the state government has failed to act accordingly in order to ensure that normal life was not disrupted. In Meghalaya, the government has registered cases against individuals and groups calling bandhs and imposed penalties,” said journalist Mrinal Talukdar, who was among 10 Guwahati citizens on whose PIL the court had declared bandhs and blockades illegal in 2010.
While the state government has not quantified the loss and damage caused by a day’s bandh in Assam, the Federation of Commerce and Industries in the North Eastern Region had in 2005 estimated that at Rs.41.14 crore.”This figure must have double by now,” said FINER president R S Joshi.
