Guwahati, March 7 (IANS) Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday distributed ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to 268 bullet-hit persons or their family members, who were injured during the six-year-long Assam movement.
Earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government had paid a one-time assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each of 860 martyrs, who had laid down their lives during the Assam Movement, as a token of tribute to the martyrs.
Speaking on the occasion, Sonowal said that the main objective of the Assam movement was to make Assam free from illegal immigrants, and the present state government has been working resolutely implementing all the clauses of the Assam Accord.
"In the six-year agitation, people irrespective of caste, creed, language and religion had jumped into the movement. Several lives were lost and so many people sustained permanent injuries," Sonowal said.
"One of the most important clauses of Assam Accord is to seal the border completely. But the previous governments did not take any pragmatic steps in this direction. However, realising that without land swapping deal, complete sealing of the border is not possible, the Narendra Modi-led Central government executed the land swapping in 2014 and took steps to completely seal 272-km Indo-Bangla border," he said.
The Modi government took the help of technology to seal the 61-km riverine border, Sonowal added.
"The previous government took no pragmatic steps to implement Clause 5 of the Assam Accord. However, the present government is extending all possible help for updation of the NRC under the supervision of the Supreme Court.
"With the insistence of the present government on NRC updation and the direct supervision of the Supreme Court, after publication of the final NRC, the vexed foreigner's issue will be solved once and for all," the Chief Minister said.
He also informed that the NRL (Numaligarh Refinery Ltd), which was set up as an offshoot of Assam Accord, has lately received Rs 22,594 crore for revamping its refining capacity from the existing 3 MMTPA to 9 MMTPA.
"In memory of the supreme sacrifice of martyrs, the state government would construct a Shahid Udyan at a sprawling 100-bigha land in the city so that the supreme sacrifice is not forgotten," Sonowal added.
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