NRC, counter-insurgency ops in Assam figure in Sonowal-Rajnath talks

Guwahati, July 9: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and drew his attention on a wide spectrum of issues including NRC updation, ongoing peace talks and counter-insurgency operations in the state.

The Chief Minister, who is on a three-day tour of New Delhi to hammer out solutions to issues, which the state was confronting with, met Singh and sought the Centre’s help in tackling them, a government release said.

Apprising the Home Minister of the progress made by the state in updating the National Register of Citizens, Sonowal drew attention of Singh about the fund crunch that the NRC exercise was facing and demanded financial assistance.

Informing Singh that the revised requirement of Rs 793.89 crore sent by the state government has not been approved, Sonowal stressed on the need to consider release of a temporary advance of Rs 150 crore to meet the immediate requirements to ensure the NRC updation exercise continued.

The Chief Minister requested Singh to expedite talks with the 13 extremist groups who were under ceasefire or Suspension of Operations agreements, the release said.

The Union Home Minister was told that the Counter-Insurgency Operations under the Unified Command with Army and Central Armed Police Forces alongside Assam Police and central and state intelligence agencies, have been successful to a large extent in improving the law and order situation, it said.

Discussing threats to the state and ways and means to counter them, Sonowal sought Singh’s intervention to restore the 75 companies withdrawn from Assam after the recently concluded Assembly Elections. He also sought the Centre’s assistance for modernisation of Police, the release said.

The Chief Minister said in Assam, altogether 100 Foreigners’ Tribunals were functioning and to improve their
functioning, additional support in terms of logistics was required and sought the Centre’s assistance in this regard.

Raising the issue of construction of Detention Centres for persons declared as foreigners by the Foreigners’ Tribunals, he wanted the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs to take up the matter with the Government of Bangladesh for a fast-track deportation mechanism to address the problem, the release said.

The issue of the proposed 133 km long border road along the Indo-Bhutan border also found space during their discussions, it said.

Sonowal drew Singh’s attention to the security related expenditure, which was not been released regularly and requested for restoration of the earlier system of fund allocation to Assam, the release added.