The talks between Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and the representatives of 29 students organisations including All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) here over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 virtually failed on Friday promoting the organisations that it would continue to carry out protest against the controversial bill.
“The Chief Minsiter said that the Centre before taking any decision on the Citizenship (Amendment Bill), 2016 would consult the people of Assam and all sections of the people would be taken into confidence but he has not said anything about oppposimg the Bill. So we are not convinced at his statement. We will continue to carry out protests untill the bill is scrapped,” AASU chief advisor Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya told reportres after the meeting.
“We urged the Assam Government to oppose the Bill during the meeting for the greater interest of the Assamese community but the Chief Misniter did not say anything in this regard,” said Bhattacharyya.
Bhattacharya alleged that the State Government has mislead the people of the State by mixing up the NRC issue with the Citizenship Bill issue.
“The Assam Accord and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 are different matters as the Bill is completely contrary to the Assam Accord. There is no point to wait till June 30 to take decision on the Bill,” Bhattacharya said.
Urging the State Government for a time bound action to implement the Assam Accord to identify and deport the illegal migrants, Bhattacharya said, “We urged the CM to provide us a definite deadline to solve the problem.”
Chief Minister Sonowal said that State government is working in tandem with the Centre for sealing of the remaining portions of Indo-Bangla Border by December 31, 2018.
He also informed that the government is taking the help of barbed fencing, smart fencing as well as technological solutions for sealing the entire stretch of the international border that Assam shares with Bangladesh
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