Members of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), on Monday, staged a 2-hour sit-in demonstration in front of the Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL) at Lepetkata in Dibrugarh over “non-fulfilment” of various demands of the students’ body.
Among the demands of the AASU was setting up of a Martyr’s Park inside the BCPL campus in memory of 855 AASU members who died during the six-year long Assam agitation from 1979 to 1985 for identification and deportation of all illegal Bangladeshi migrants.
The movement ended with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985.
The Assam Gas Cracker Project later christened as the Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL) was a part of the historic Assam Accord for the socio-economic development of the region.
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“One of our demands was that a Martyr’s Park (Swahid Udyan) should be constructed inside the BCPL complex to honour the 855 martyrs of the Assam agitation. Without their sacrifice the Gas Cracker Project wouldn’t have been here today. We are giving BCPL authorities 10 days to come with a statement regarding the park or else we will launch an agitation,” Abani Kumar Gogoi, president of the Dibrugarh district AASU unit said.
The students’ body also sought 100% job reservation for indigenous people from Assam at the BCPL.
It also demanded strict measures against environmental pollution by the petrochemical plant and development of the green belt area in the periphery of the plant.
On February 5, 2016 the Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited in Assam’s Dibrugarh was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.